Apple Considers a Person-to-Person Payment System for iPhone and iPad

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PYMNTS reported on Monday that Apple is designing a person-to-person payment system (P2P). This was initially revealed back in November of last year. Apple recently filed a patent in December for a mobile service designed to compete with other services like PayPal’s Venmo, Square Cash, and SnapCash.

It appears Apple is also thinking about allowing money to be sent through phone calls, e-mails, calendar invites, and the iMessage app. This came from a Quartz article, which was first to report on the P2P payment system.

p2p-payments-applePYMNTS stated: “For now, Quartz’s report on the patent shows that the iMessage app would be the primary way to pay a contact, via a text message, but then other images in the patent show that the P2P payment service would enable users to send payments to multiple people at once. It also has options to specify when, how, and how much to send.There’s no official word if this will affect how Apple Pay.

Apple-Pay-image-courtesy-AppleDemonstration of Apple Pay

Apple’s new payment service is still quite a mystery, as the company hasn’t disclosed how they will launch their new system. The PYMNTS article mentions that Apple has not revealed how it will integrate a P2P payment system with banks and how money will actually be transferred from one financial account to the next. There is also word on of how much it will cost to transfer money.

Sources have said little, only that, “…the services would work very much like others do – consumers have options to send payments from their bank accounts to another person via Apple Pay” according to the article. Apple has been reported to have been in talks with several banks, including: JPMorgan Chase, Capital One, Wells Fargo, and U.S. Bancorp.

Facebook users currently can send money through Facebook Messenger. The social media site will soon partner with Uber and allow rides to be paid through the social media site. Facebook has a tendency to either build a relationship with or acquire other tech companies, helping them to grow significantly. Apple might have gotten the idea for their patent from Facebook. Regardless, the new patent suggests that Apple is trying to think outside the box.

A person-to-person payment system would benefit Apple users, allowing them to send money without having to buy a money order or setting up a wire transfer. It could be as easy as sending a dollar amount via text.

Goods and services could also be paid this way, becoming the next best thing since Apple Pay. While patents are not always used in the end, it shows that Apple wants to expand the features they offer with their portable devices.

Learn More: Sources Within Apple’s Supply Chain Confirm ‘iPhone 7’ Will NOT Feature a 3.5mm Headphone Jack

[The information provided in this article has NOT been confirmed by Apple and may be speculation. Provided details may not be factual. Take all rumors, tech or otherwise, with a grain of salt.]

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