Apple Pay will soon support NFC tags to trigger payments

At the beginning of this month, Apple’s Vice President of Apple Pay, Jennifer Bailey announced a new NFC feature for Apple Pay. Now, Apple Pay will be supported with NFC stickers/tags, that will trigger it for payment without needing to have an app installed. This announcement was made during the keynote address at the TRANSACT Conference, Las Vegas, which focused on global payment technology.

The new iPhones will have special NFC tags that will trigger Apple Pay purchases when tapped. This means all you need to do is tap on the NFC tag, confirm the purchase through Apple Pay(through Face ID or Touch ID) and the payment would be done. This will require no separate app and will be handled by Apple Pay along with the Wallet app.

As per 9to5Mac, Apple is partnering with Bird scooters, Bonobos clothing store, and PayByPhone parking meters in the initial round. Also, users will soon be able to sign up for loyalty cards within the Wallet app, with a single tap with no third party or setup required. According to NFC World, Dairy Queen, Panera Bread, Yogurtland, Jimmy John's, Dave & Busters, and Caribou Coffee are all planning to launch services later this year that will use NFC tags allowing customers to sign up for loyalty cards.

https://twitter.com/SteveMoser/status/1127949077432426496

This could be another step towards Apple’s goal of replacing the wallet. This feature will make instant and on the go purchases a lot more faster and easier.

A user on Reddit has commented, “From a user's point of view, this seems great. No need to wait for congested LTE to download an app in order to pay for a scooter or parking.”

Another user is comparing Apple Pay with QR code, stating “QR code requires at least one more step which is using the camera. Hopefully, Apple Pay will be just a single tap and confirm, which would be invoked automatically whenever the phone is near a point of sale. And since the NFC tags will have a predetermined, set payment amount associated with them, even biometrics shouldn’t be necessary.”

https://twitter.com/lgeffen/status/1128083948410744832

More details on this feature can be expected at the Apple Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) 2019 (WWDC19) coming up in June.