Malcolm Owen
Just a day after developers were supplied with a second pre-release beta of iOS 11.2, Apple issued a new build for public testers as well, but with one small surprise: Apple Pay Cash is now available to try ahead of its public launch.
Apple appears to have remotely enabled Apple Pay Cash for iOS 11.2 testers, meaning developers running the build from Monday should also have access to the feature soon.
Available to beta participants based within the United States only, the payment system allows users to send cash to other users via a dedicated Apple Pay app within Messages in iOS 11. Funds are transferred to a prepaid "Apple Pay Cash" card, powered by partner Green Dot, which can then be used as a payment source for further Apple Pay transactions.
The person-to-person payments are funded using existing credit and debit cards already added to Apple Pay, with transactions involving credit cards incurring a small fee while debit cards will not. Funds added to a user's Apple Pay Cash card can only be used for Apple Pay purchases in stores, online, and in apps, but cannot be transferred into a user's bank account.
Apple originally introduced Apple Pay Cash as a feature of iOS 11 that would be added after the initial launch, in a similar way to how Apple Pay was introduced to users. Considering its appearance in the public beta of iOS 11.2, it is highly likely to launch when the iOS update ships in the near future.
Other changes in iOS 11.2 include a Now Playing widget for Apple TV media in Control Center. It also adds SiriKit commands for HomePod, and rectifies a minor Calculator bug.
iOS 11.2 beta 2 is identified as build 15C5097d.
Apple cautions against installing beta releases of its operating systems on mission-critical hardware, and recommends dedicated gear for testing.
Andrew Orr
Amber Neely
William Gallagher
Christine McKee
AppleInsider Staff
21 Comments
“Funds added to a user's Apple Pay Cash card can only be used for Apple Pay purchases in stores, online, and in apps, but cannot be transferred into a user's bank account.“
Damn i was hoping this would replace my Square Cash App me and my friend use it to pay each other back. Apple Pay adoption has been sluggish in certain areas like utilities so I wouldn’t wanna be paid this way.
Apple making these transfers Pay exclusive makes me wonder though....
Do you think we’ll be seeing Pay gift cards in stores soon?
From the Apple support document:
When someone sends you money, it's automatically and securely kept on your Apple Pay Cash card. You’ll see your new Apple Pay Cash card in Wallet, and you can use the money to send to someone, make purchases using Apple Pay in stores, within apps, and on the web, or transfer it from Apple Pay Cash to your bank account.
I could be mistaken but I thought I read after the Apple Pay Cash announcement that funds could be transferred into a bank account. Is this a change? Or maybe that was just speculation.
That does sort of limit its usefulness. We have somebody who does periodic work for us and only wants cash. She was looking forward to Apple Pay Cash but has yet to actually even use Apple Pay. Without being able to transfer that money to a bank account I imagine she won’t be interested.