Tap to Pay on iPhone
Evidence of Tap to Pay appeared in the iOS 15.4 betas, but that doesn’t mean it was fully baked. After all, developers found code for AirTags in early iOS 13 betas — a full two years before they were released with iOS 14.3.
While our sources are telling us that Tap to Pay won’t fully launch until the arrival of iOS 16 this fall, Apple is already making parts of it available for payment platforms and their developer partners so that they can be ready when it launches. Since iOS 16 isn’t going to show up until June, the code has to already be in the versions of iOS 15 that are available.
Despite what we’ve heard, we also can’t rule out the possibility that Apple could roll out Tap to Pay sooner, perhaps in a more limited manner. Consider that Apple Car Key surprised us by arriving in iOS 13.6, despite reports that it wouldn’t be coming until iOS 14 later that year.