Wallet and Apple Pay

Corey Fugman, Apple’s Senior Director of Wallet and Apple Pay shared some exciting improvements coming to Apple’s payment technology in and around iOS 16.

While not all of these are specific to Apple’s next major iOS release, users will soon be able to securely present Digital IDs to third-party apps requiring identity and age verification. For example, a Maryland or Arizona driver’s license could be used to prove that you’re 21 when ordering alcohol from Uber Eats. Fugman noted that there are eleven other states actively working on Digital ID deployments.

iOS 16 will also allow the sharing of digital keys for home, office, and more with messaging apps like Mail, Messages, or even WhatsApp, allowing friends to add the keys to their Wallet with a single tap.

Apple is also working on making this kind of key sharing an industry standard, so you’ll be able to share your keys even with friends and family members who don’t have iPhones.

Fugman also announced that Tap to Pay on iPhone will begin launching to millions of merchants across the U.S. starting this month.

A new ?Pay Later feature will also let users split the cost of any Apple Pay purchases into four equal payments with zero interest and no fees. Fugman says this will be available everywhere Apple Pay is accepted, both in-app and online, but he didn’t mention which countries it would be available in at launch. Like Apple Card and Apple Cash, there’s a good chance this one will be U.S.-only, and in fact on its website, Apple notes that it will use the Mastercard network and be “available for qualifying applicants in the United States.”

However, merchants and developers don’t have to do anything special. This just works using the standard Apple Pay implementation. Upcoming payments can be viewed and managed directly through Apple Wallet.

Apple Pay is also gaining a new Order Tracking feature to allow merchants to deliver receipts and tracking info directly to Wallet. This will require some integration on the part of e-commerce platforms, however, Shopify is already on board to support it with the release of iOS 16.