Apple Pay is expanding
During the WWDC 2016 keynote, it was announced that Apple Pay is expanding to three more regions. Through a partnership with Visa, MasterCard, and American Express the service will be offered in France, Hong Kong, and Switzerland.
Visa and MasterCard will be offered for Apple Pay in all of the three regions. American Express will be available in Hong Kong. However, it will depend on the country of use that which card is used.
On Tuesday 14 June 2016 Apple also announced in San Francisco that Apple Pay is coming to the web as well. Now all Mac users will be able to pay online through Safari through the use of a “Pay with Apple Pay” button. The purchase will then be authenticated through the use of Touch ID from an iOS device or Apple Watch. The purchase will then be automatically processed in the Safari browser. The new method is very safe as users can make online payments without re-entering their information.
Apple has reportedly already signed up a number of companies for this new payment platform. Companies like Target, Expedia and United Airlines, among others, have already signed up with Apple for this new feature.
Another new update was also introduced for the iMessage application. Through iMessage users are able to open a new application drawer to talk to others. On Tuesday, it was said at WWDC 2016 that iMessage will soon offer new emojis. Users of iMessage will also be able to send each other money through the iMessage application. In order to do so, users can now download the Square Cash application for iMessage.
Apple Pay is now quite aggressively trying to overtake PayPal as the internet’s number one payment service. We will have to wait and see how long it takes Apple Pay to overtake PayPal in popularity and usage.