Giving a tough competition to Facebook and Paytm, Apple has announced the launch of its person-to-person (p2p) payments within its instant messaging service iMessage with the roll-out of its latest mobile operating system iOS 11 later this year.
The service will be available on Apple Pay, company’s official payment service that currently allows users to pay for things in stores, on the web and within apps.
As of now, Apple Pay is not available for users in India.The company, over the past one year, has made five patent applications with the Indian patent office for innovations pertaining to digital payments. The announcement was made recently at Apple’s Worldwide Developer Conference (WWDC).
For initiating its p2p payments, Apple will not route money through a user’s credit or debit cards, but it will be done through an Apple Pay Cash Card. The move will put Apple in competition with similar services offered by Paytm.
While Apple has confirmed that p2p payments will go live within iMessage, it is not clear if the feature will be available outside of the company’s instant messaging service.
Facebook has applied for a patent with the Indian patent office for a payment service.
