Apple Pay Adds 29 Banks In Rollout, To Eventually Include Devices Running On iOS 11 & watchOS 4

An additional 29 banks and credit unions are the latest partners of Apple Pay. The expansion of the mobile payment service goes beyond partner financial institutions. When the iOS 11 and watchOS 4 rolls out, devices running the two Apple OS will also offer Apple Pay, the Cupertino-based tech giant announced at the WWDC 2017.

Besides the two upcoming Apple OS, the person-to-person feature that lets users send money to family and friends over iMessage using Apple Pay is also available on the iPhone, iPad, and Apple Watch, 9To5Mac reports. By fall, the tech giant will also roll out Apple Pay Cash, a virtual debit card which appears in the Wallet app and holds money received from person-to-person transfers.

The money sent can be withdrawn from a bank account, sent to other people, or used to pay for goods and services in retailers that accept Apple Pay. After the service launched in the U.S., Apple Pay is now in 15 other countries. These are Canada, Russia, the United Kingdom, mainland China, Italy, Singapore, Spain, Taiwan, France, Switzerland, Australia, Hong Kong, New Zealand, Japan, and Ireland.

Business Standard adds that Apple has made at least five patent applications with the patent office in India for innovations related to digital payment. The applications are in preparation for Apple Pay’s eventual extension to India, Apple officials said at the WWDC. The Indian daily notes a similar move was made by Facebook which is testing payment systems within the website’s messenger service and WhatsApp.

Craig Rederighi, the senior vice president of software engineering of Apple, says the Apple Pay software is the number one contactless payment software for mobile. The release of the peer-to-peer software is a further step to integrate Apple Pay’s software into the platform so users would leave Android and third-party apps payment systems.