Canadian firms finally get Tap to Pay on iPhone

Tap to Pay on iPhone comes to Canada (Source: Apple)

Two years after Apple first launched it in the US, Tap to Pay on iPhone is now available to merchants in Canada, allowing them to accept contactless payments using their phones instead of dedicated readers. It also enables app developers to incorporate the feature into their iOS apps.

"Canadians increasingly rely on a variety of digital and contactless payment options," Jennifer Bailey, Apple's vice president of Apple Pay and Apple Wallet, said in a statement, "so we're excited to partner with payment platforms to offer merchants across Canada a private, secure, and easy-to-use capability that meets customers where they are."

"We've seen how merchants and customers around the world appreciate the versatility of Tap to Pay on iPhone," she continued, "and in a region as diverse as Canada's, we look forward to making it easy for businesses of any size to transact from coast to coast with just an iPhone."

Tap to Pay on iPhone replaces the separate, single-purpose, handheld devices that financial platforms sold to businesses for taking contactless payments. Now once a payment platform has adopted the new feature, its users will be able to take payments just by using an iOS app, and hold their iPhone near to the customer's.

Apple says that at launch, the first payment platforms to offer Tap to Pay on iPhone are Adyen, Moneris, Stripe, and Square. It says that others including Aurus, Chase Payment Solutions, and more will introduce the feature in over next few months.

Tap to Pay on iPhone will also begin to be available in Apple Stores in Canada later this year.

The release of the feature in Canada comes just over a week since Apple also launched it in Japan.