Paying using your iPhone can be pretty easy and painless, but it seems iOS 14 might make it even easier, as if that was even possible.
This comes from 9to5Mac, which discovered mentions of a new feature in the code to iOS 14. The developer beta of iOS 14 is out now, giving people an early glimpse into the upcoming operating system, and this is just one of the features discovered.
Apparently, this new Apple Pay feature would let you point your iPhone camera at a barcode or QR code, and it'll give you the option to pay straight away.
- What you need to know about iPadOS 14
- The iPhone 12 is coming soon
- Check out our iPhone SE (2020) review
This feature would make it really easy to pay bills at restaurants, or for quick coffees or beers at coffee shops or bars respectively, potentially saving even more time than you do through contactless payments.
Saying that, it's not exactly clear how this improves over contactless payment in many ways, seeing as it sounds like it'll take more time. Perhaps after the new tech has been out a while, people will find ways to make the feature work for them though.
Alternatively, the tech might be useful in places like the US where contactless payment isn't as widely used as other markets.
Send to a friend
This iOS 14 feature did have one perk that seems useful for all - you can also bring up a QR code on your screen, that your friend can scan in order to send you money.
This sounds a lot quicker and easier than signing in to online banking, and maybe even more so than app-based banking, so if an iPhone user wants to send another iPhone user cash, this might end up being the quickest way to do it.
iOS 14 is currently in its developer beta, but a public beta is expected to start some time in July before a full release likely around September. As more features are discovered in the early builds, we'll bring them to you so you can get excited for the eventual release.
