ExxonMobil adds App Clips and Apple Pay to its fuel pumps for easier payments

How to use Apple Pay on iPhone and iPad (Image credit: iMore)

What you need to know

Apple Pay and App Clips are making buying fuel less of a pain.
ExxonMobil is adding App Clips and Apple Pay support to its pumps.
Drivers will scan a QR code and pay for their fuel right from the pump.

Fuel company ExxonMobil is bringing App Clips and Apple Pay to more than 11,500 Exxon and Mobil fuel stations across the United States, making paying easier than ever. The new payment method will require users to have iOS 14 or later installed, however.

Drivers will simply scan a QR code located on the fuel pump and then pay via an App Clip version of the ExxonMobil app according to Digital Transactions and Apple Insider reports. Those who already have the full app installed will see the app launch instead of the App Clip.

Exxonmobil App Clips Code (Image credit: Digital Transactions)

On iPhones, for consumers without the ExxonMobil app, the contactless connection prompts an Apple Inc. App Clips feature to display a portion of the full-fledged app without requiring the consumer download it at that moment. Instead, a small part of the app is activated—the payment part. Once the transaction is authorized, the app clip shows the status of the transaction and a prompt to get the full-fledged app.

App Clips is a feature of iOS 14 and later, meaning users will need to have a recent version of the software installed for this all to work properly. App Clips are small, lightweight snippets of apps that allow users to use a portion of the full app's functionality without having to download it first. This ExxonMobile play is a perfect example of where App Clips can be used and one that we might see more companies following.

Oliver Haslam has written about Apple and the wider technology business for more than a decade with bylines on How-To Geek, PC Mag, iDownloadBlog, and many more. He has also been published in print for Macworld, including cover stories. At iMore, Oliver is involved in daily news coverage and, not being short of opinions, has been known to 'explain' those thoughts in more detail, too.

Having grown up using PCs and spending far too much money on graphics card and flashy RAM, Oliver switched to the Mac with a G5 iMac and hasn't looked back. Since then he's seen the growth of the smartphone world, backed by iPhone, and new product categories come and go. Current expertise includes iOS, macOS, streaming services, and pretty much anything that has a battery or plugs into a wall. Oliver also covers mobile gaming for iMore, with Apple Arcade a particular focus. He's been gaming since the Atari 2600 days and still struggles to comprehend the fact he can play console quality titles on his pocket computer.