iOS 14 might bring a brand new way to pay or send money from your iPhone

Apple Pay
Apple Pay (Image credit: Future)

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.

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.

Tom Bedford
Contributor

Tom Bedford was deputy phones editor on TechRadar until late 2022, having worked his way up from staff writer. Though he specialized in phones and tablets, he also took on other tech like electric scooters, smartwatches, fitness, mobile gaming and more. He is based in London, UK and now works for the entertainment site What To Watch.

He graduated in American Literature and Creative Writing from the University of East Anglia. Prior to working on TechRadar, he freelanced in tech, gaming and entertainment, and also spent many years working as a mixologist.