Apple will allow developers to offer in-app NFC transactions using Secure Element starting with iOS 18.1, and as part of the update, you’ll also be able to set a default contactless payment app that can be accessed when you double-click the iPhone’s side button. Previously, Apple only allowed Apple Pay to appear when you double-clicked that button.
With this change, developers will be able to offer contactless in-app transactions for a wide range of apps, Included “In-store payments, car keys, enclosed transport, company logos, student ID cards, house keys, hotel keys, merchant loyalty and rewards cards, event tickets.” Until now, NFC access for third-party applications has been limited. To read the signs.
Apple says in its press release that government ID cards will be supported “in the future.”
The APIs for building these apps will be available to developers in Australia, Brazil, Canada, Japan, New Zealand, the UK, and the US in the iOS 18.1 developer beta, with “additional locations to follow,” Apple says. However, developers who want to take advantage of Apple’s APIs will “have to enter into a commercial agreement with Apple, apply for NFC and SE rights, and pay the associated fees.”
The shift comes on the heels of Apple’s offer to open up iPhone NFC payments to third-party providers following an antitrust investigation by the European Commission. The European Commission announced last month that it had made commitments to Apple legally binding.
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