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Apple will reportedly let your iPhone turn into a payment terminal

The service will roll out in the "coming months," according to a report.

Sareena Dayaram
Sareena Dayaram
Sareena Dayaram Senior Editor
Sareena is a senior editor for CNET covering the mobile beat including device reviews. She is a seasoned multimedia journalist with more than a decade's worth of experience producing stories for television and digital publications across Asia's financial capitals including Singapore, Hong Kong, and Mumbai. Prior to CNET, Sareena worked at CNN as a news writer and Reuters as a producer.
Expertise Huawei, Oppo, smartphones, smartwatches Credentials
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Sareena Dayaram
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Apple is developing a new service that effectively turns your iPhone into a payment terminal. This will allow businesses to accept payments directly onto an iPhone without any additional hardware, according to a Bloomberg report published Thursday.

The feature has been anticipated since Apple's acquisition of Canadian start-up Mobeewave for $100 million in 2020. The  startup is credited for developing a technology that accepts payments with a tap of the phone. 

A service like this would mean merchants would no longer need third-party hardware, including the devices made by Square, and would reportedly integrate tap-to-pay tech on iPhones. Customers would be able to make payments by tapping the back of the merchant's devices with a credit card or another iPhone, the report says. iPhones would likely rely on the NFC chip for this upcoming service. 

Apple is preparing to rollout the feature "in the coming months", the report says. On Jan. 26 Apple released iOS 15.3, its latest software update for iPhones and iPads that fix several security flaws, including a Safari bug that lets websites you visit see your browsing history and other personal data.

Apple didn't immediately respond to a CNET request for comment.