The European Union’s Digital Markets Act (DMA) antitrust legislation compelled Apple to grant developers greater access to the iPhone’s NFC reader, and this change was implemented earlier this year with iOS 17.4. Now, the Norwegian payment platform “Vipps” has become the first to use the new API to let users pay with NFC directly from its iPhone app.
Vipps is the first app to add NFC payments for iPhone users
As reported by Tek.no, the latest update to the Vipps app lets iPhone users make contactless payments in stores using their cards – all without leaving the app or relying on Apple Wallet. Users can even choose to replace the Apple Wallet app with Vipps, so that double-clicking the side button opens Vipps instead of Wallet.
For now, Vipps only supports Bankaxept cards (from Norway’s national payment system), but the platform says that Visa and Mastercard support will be added “in a few months,” allowing users to pay contactlessly with Vipps worldwide.
“We have fought for years to be able to compete on equal footing with Apple, and it feels almost surreal to finally be able to launch our very own solution. This will now be a very exciting battle between the world’s biggest brand and Vipps,” says Rune Garborg, CEO of Vipps MobilePay.
In August, Apple announced that it would roll out the ability for third-party apps to function as NFC wallets to more countries. With iOS 18.1, which was released in October, the company made the NFC & SE Platform API available to developers based in Australia, Brazil, Canada, Japan, New Zealand, the United Kingdom, and the United States.
With this API, developers can create wallet apps that support payments, digital keys, IDs, and even tickets. Apple says that the API takes advantage of the iPhone’s Secure Enclave to ensure that all data is managed privately.
More details about the NFC & SE Platform API can be found on the Apple Developer website.
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