The EU just forced Apple to open up the iPhone's tap-to-pay feature — now PayPal is moving in

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You may not be stuck using Apple Pay for much longer

PayPal logo on iPhone
(Image credit: Shutterstock)

Can you imagine being able to tap your iPhone and pay for something without having to use Apple Pay? That situation is very real for German iPhone users, with reports that PayPal's tap-to-pay feature is now available to use in the country (via iPhone Ticker).

Actually, this isn't a huge surprise. The EU's Digital Markets Act (DMA) already forced Apple to open iPhone NFC chips to third-party payment providers. PayPal also announced that it would introduce this feature in Germany in a press release at the start of the month.

Obviously, PayPal is a much bigger deal, and it's unlikely that it will limit tap-to-pay to the German market for long — assuming everything goes well.

Could this come to the U.S. too?

While most of the DMA-imposed changes to iOS are limited to the EU, Apple has confirmed that it would be opening tap-to-pay in other regions as well — including the U.S. That process all kicked off with iOS 18.1, which arrived in October.

According to Apple, developers will be able to offer "in-app contactless transactions" for various things, including payments, car keys, transit passes, IDs, hotel room keys and even reward cards. Government ID support is also expected to arrive at some point in the future.

The changes also allow iPhone users to accept contactless payments via NFC. That means you can send money to your friends by tapping your phones together, rather than going through the motions of finding their account on Venmo or some other payment provider.

The appropriate APIs were made available to developers in the U.S., U.K., Australia, Canada, Japan, New Zealand and Brazil. It's up to PayPal (or whoever else might be interested) to make it happen.

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Tom Pritchard
Tom Pritchard
UK Phones Editor

Tom is the Tom's Guide's UK Phones Editor, tackling the latest smartphone news and vocally expressing his opinions about upcoming features or changes. It's long way from his days as editor of Gizmodo UK, when pretty much everything was on the table. He’s usually found trying to squeeze another giant Lego set onto the shelf, draining very large cups of coffee, or complaining about how terrible his Smart TV is.

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