Square announced Thursday that it will begin supporting Apple’s Tap to Pay technology later this year with a beta test coming this summer as part of the company’s Early Access Program. Right now, if a business uses Square to process sales, they need to use the Square family dongle to receive payments. With support for Apple’s Tap to Pay, you should be able to process a large portion of payments with nothing more than an iPhone and the Square app. The new program will allow iPhone users to pay with their phone within Square’s point of sale (POS) app. Apple first announced Tap to Pay in February 2022 and first supported Square’s competitor Stripe. Partnership with Stripe also supports payments made in the Shopify POS app. The tap-to-pay feature is currently only available on iPhone XS models and later, and between that and requiring people to have cards or phones that support tap-to-pay, the Square dongle may not be going away any time soon. Its appeal, for many providers, is that it allows them to accept more forms of payment easily. The dongle, for many Square users, might still be the best option. Square said in its press release that spots for its Early Access Program are limited and didn’t specify when the program would start, but you can sign up for the program right now on Square’s website.
