The Apple Park Visitor Center is already using iPhone Tap to Pay

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

What you need to know

  • Apple appears to be testing its Tap to Pay feature at its Apple Park Visitor Center.
  • People can make payments via Tap to Pay using Apple Pay and contactless cards.
  • Apple employees accept payments using a standard iPhone without the need for attachments.

Apple is already using its new Tap to Pay functionality at one specific Apple Store — its Apple Park Visitor Center. The new feature allows people to pay for items in the Apple Store using Apple Pay by tapping their device against a standard iPhone — no need for attachments as is currently the case.

Apple's Tap to Pay is available to businesses via the Stripe and Adyen payment platforms but it isn't yet offered as an ad-hoc payment system for individuals. That could change with the arrival of iOS 16 later this year but we'll need to wait for this year's WWDC event to know for sure.

A new video posted to Twitter shows a payment being taken by an Apple Store employee using what appears to be a standard iPhone, something that isn't possible without Tap to Pay. Apple Stores can currently accept Apple Pay via attachments that connect to iPhones and handle the payment, but that isn't what's happening here.

The video below also shows a fancy animation that confirms a payment has been successful.

There is no indication of when we can expect this new Tap to Pay feature to roll out to other Apple Stores, but it seems like it will only be a matter of time before it happens. The same goes for other retailers that will no longer need attachments from the likes of Square in order to accept contactless payments via Apple Pay and cards.

Oliver Haslam
Oliver Haslam
Contributor

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.