Square announces a Tap to Pay on iPhone early access program launching today

Apple Tap To Pay Iphone Terminal (Image credit: Apple)

What you need to know

Square has announced an early access program for Tap to Pay on iPhone.
People will be able to accept payment using nothing more than their iPhone.
Accepting payments with an iPhone currently requires an accessory.

Tap to Pay with iPhone, a new payment system that will allow people to accept payments using nothing more than an iPhone, will be available to members of Square's new early access program this summer, the company has confirmed.

Announced via press release, the new program will allow a limited number of people to try Stripe's implementation of Tap to Pay with iPhone ahead of its full launch.

Square today announced that it is working with Apple to enable Tap to Pay on iPhone, Apple's contactless payment acceptance capability, within the Square Point of Sale app. The new offering enables sellers of all sizes to seamlessly and securely accept in-person contactless payments with only an iPhone and Square's industry leading POS app. Ahead of publicly launching the service later this year, Square also announced an Early Access Program for Tap to Pay on iPhone, allowing select sellers to begin testing the new technology.

Currently, people who want to accept payments using an iPhone will need to use a third-party accessory. With Tap to Pay with iPhone, that requirement is removed entirely.

Square notes that access to the early access program is limited and that people wanting to get involved can learn more on the company's website now.

Tap to Pay could well turn out to be the best iPhone feature for small businesses, allowing them to accept both Apple Pay and contactless card payments with ease.

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.