Apple's iPhone Tap to Pay feature looks like it is in beta testing at Apple Park HQ. Apple Pay is the company's new initiative to help businesses, and consumers ease their payment transactions using just one tap on their iPhone. 

Apple Pay was first unveiled in February, and it looks like the Apple Park Visitor Center in Cupertino, California, is now using its Tap To Pay feature ahead of its rollout.

Apple Pay

Apple's new "Tap to Pay" feature for the iPhone makes it possible for compatible iPhones to accept contactless payments without needing any extra hardware.

According to MacRumors, with the help of Apple Pay's Tap to Pay feature, a sales associate at a store can accept contactless payment from a customer using nothing more than an iPhone instead of a traditional payment terminal.

The functionality will, in theory, turn the iPhone into a payment terminal, letting businesses accept Apple Pay, contactless debit and credit cards, and other digital wallets with just a tap of the customer's phone to the iPhone.

Back then, retailers who wanted to accept contactless payments on an iPhone needed to rely on supplementary hardware such as the Square Reader. The Square Reader is available in a variety of models, some of which work wirelessly while others connect to the Lightning connector or headphone jack of the iPhone.

When the feature is released in the United States later this year, retailers will also be able to accept payments using contactless credit and debit cards, as well as payments from other digital wallets. In order to process the payment, the only additional hardware that will be required is an iPhone equipped with NFC. It will make it possible for small businesses to accept contactless payments through their iOS apps as long as the user has an iPhone XS or a later model.

Tap to Pay was initially announced by Apple, with Stripe as the sole partner. However, Apple has since decided to expand to include another partner, the Dutch payment processing company Adyen.

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Apple's Tap To Pay on iPhones

The Apple Pay feature was initially introduced into the system in 2014, at which time iPhones were already able to support contactless payments. The new Tap to Pay feature allows merchants to accept payments using contactless technology without the need for additional hardware. This makes it easier for customers to make purchases as long as their iPhone devices support it.

9TO5Mac reports that back then, Apple Store employees have been able to take Apple Pay payments through their phones for years. However, it needs the help of a special case that snaps onto the phone. With the all-new Apple Pay feature now, since Tap to Pay is built into the iPhone software, these accessories aren't really needed anymore.

It has been speculated that Apple Pay Cash will support Tap to Pay with the release of iOS 16, which would make it possible for iPhone users to send money to one another simply by placing their phones in close proximity to one another.

In the meantime, Apple users will not be able to make use of this feature at this time just yet. Both Shopify and Adyen, which are point-of-sale commerce platforms, are currently capable of providing businesses with access to it.

Apple has not yet provided an official Apple Pay release date, but it looks like the rollout will come sooner than expected, and it is also assumed that the feature will be implemented globally.

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