Apple Tap to Pay gives Australian businesses a new way to get paid

(Image credit: Wix)

Australian small businesses now have a whole new way to get paid after Apple brought its Tap to Pay functionality online in the country for the first time.

Tap to Pay allows small and medium-sized businesses to accept contactless payments using nothing more than an iPhone — payments can be made using Apple Pay or a contactless debit or credit card as if they were being handled by a traditional point-of-sale terminal.

The new Tap to Pay feature is available on the iPhone Xs and newer devices so long as they're running iOS 16.4 or later. Businesses won't have to rush out to buy the best new iPhone just to use Tap to Pay.

Time to get paid

Contactless payments are already big in Australia, but being able to accept payments using just an iPhone is a big deal for smaller businesses — especially mobile ones.

"Once enabled, merchants will simply prompt customers to hold their iPhone or Apple Watch to pay with Apple Pay, their contactless credit or debit card, or other digital wallet near the merchant’s iPhone, and the payment will be securely completed using NFC technology," Apple announced via press release. "Tap to Pay on iPhone also supports PIN entry, which includes accessibility options."

Australian Tap to Pay works via the Westpac and Tyro Payments payment platforms, with ANZ Worldline Payment Solutions, Stripe, Till Payments, and Zeller all coming online "in the coming months.

Apple first announced Tap to Pay in the United States in February 2022 and is now slowly rolling it out to international users as more payment handlers come online.

Apple Tap to Pay shouldn't be confused with Apple Pay, Apple Pay Later, or Apple Card — all Apple payment methods and financial services that continue to expand its position as a pseudo bank.

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.