Apple Pay for iMessage Debuts in iOS 11.2 Beta 2 ⇥ macstories.net

Ryan Christoffel, MacStories:

Users of the latest iOS 11.2 beta release received a surprise today in their Messages app picker: the long-awaited Apple Pay iMessage app has now arrived.

Only in the United States, at the moment.

Most of the details of this feature were announced at WWDC, but Christoffel shares additional notes, including all the different access points for peer-to-peer Apple Pay:

While opening the iMessage app to initiate all payments and requests may be the idealized workflow, Apple has included several alternative methods for starting a transaction. You can use Siri to send or request money by voice, using simple commands like ‘Send John $10’ or ‘Ask Federico to send me $10.’ Within the Contacts app, there’s now a Pay button alongside other contact options, which takes you into Messages and opens the Apple Pay app. Inside the Messages app, any message you receive that includes a dollar amount will have that amount underlined, indicating it includes a link to quickly open the Apple Pay app and make a payment. Apple is clearly aware that far more often friends and family send standard messages with the requested amounts included. Lastly, the QuickType keyboard can also serve as a shortcut to initiate a payment.

It makes total sense that this is an iMessage app, but the additional access points ought to help users discover the feature which, I think, is the biggest hurdle Apple faces against a competitor like Venmo.