Apple Pay Cash is officially available for all iPhone users, thanks to iOS update

By Steven Winkelman Updated May 5, 2022

After iPhone users experienced repeated crashes to their devices, Apple released iOS 11.2 with a fix for the bug. Included within the update was Apple Pay Cash, but the feature wasn’t activated for most users. As of Tuesday, the new feature that allows you to send and receive payments through iMessage is officially available for all iPhone users.

Following the release of Apple Pay Cash, Discover announced its official partnership with Apple. Transactions made with the payment service are facilitated specifically through the Discover Network.

Recommended Videos

Apple joins a host of other services including Venmo, Zelle, PayPal, and Google Wallet in the peer-to-peer payment industry. It has also partnered with prepaid debit giant Green Dot to offer free payments between iPhone users. Even though Apple is coming late to the game with Apple Pay Cash, the company is trying to make the product a standout in terms of convenience and ease of use.

While Apple Pay Cash joins a number of other payment services, there are several big differences that make the service unique. The biggest is that the service is only available on the iPhone. Users on iPhones who want to make payments to Android users will have to use an alternate service to process peer-to-peer payments.

One of the most interesting features of Apple Pay Cash is the ability to send and receive funds in real time. While Zelle began offering almost instant transfers earlier this year, it involves a lengthy verification process with your bank upon your first use. Apple chose to go an alternate route, using the credit or debit card in your Apple Wallet to fund transfers.

While Apple Pay Cash does allow for immediate availability of funds at any location where Apple Pay is accepted, transferring funds to your bank account involves a little more legwork. You’ll have to add your banking information to Wallet when you begin using the service. Once your bank is verified, you can transfer funds to your bank account, which will take two to three days. If you’re looking to have funds deposited into your bank on the same day, Zelle still seems to be the best option.

Update: Apple Pay Cash is officially available on iOS 11.2

Steven Winkelman

Staff Writer, Mobile

Steven writes about technology, social practice, and books. At Digital Trends, he focuses primarily on mobile and wearables…

Topics

Mobile

The iPhone 17 Pro may not have a redesigned camera after all

A close-up of the cameras on the iPhone 16 Pro.

If you've followed any of the previous iPhone 17 leaks, then you likely read that the camera is supposedly getting a redesign that makes it look more like a Pixel than an iPhone. The phone is still almost a year away, so many rumors are just hearsay with no confirmation at this point. Now, a new leak suggests that while the iPhone 17 Pro will see a change, the camera module will remain triangular.

According to tipster Setsuna Digital on Weibo, the camera won't undergo as drastic a redesign as previously believed. "My sources told me that the back has indeed changed, but the triple-camera layout is still a triangle, not the horizontal strip that is currently circulating online." The majority of leaks so far have been from different companies within the supply chain that manufacture different parts for the iPhone 17 Pro.

Mobile

Visual Intelligence has made the Camera Control on my iPhone 16 worth using

Using Visual Intelligence on an iPhone 16 Pro showing ChatGPT answer.

One of the big selling points of the iPhone 16 hardware is the Camera Control button. It’s a small physical button on the bottom right of the frame that also has some capacitive capabilities. With the initial launch of iOS 18, a single press launches your camera app of choice, and you can do half presses and sliding gestures to adjust camera settings. It’s a neat idea, but it has some flaws that prevent it from being a great shutter button.

But now we have iOS 18.2, and that brought a lot of new Apple Intelligence features to our phones, especially if you have an iPhone 16. With iOS 18.2, Apple finally added Visual Intelligence, a feature similar to Google Lens, but on iPhone.

Mobile

A new render teases the iPhone 17 Pro Max’s big redesign, and I’m torn

Leaked render of iPhone 17 Pro Max front glass and rear camera bar module.

With the iPhone 16 line, Apple made some big changes with the base models, while the iPhone 16 Pro versions looked identical to those from the past several years. But Apple appears to be making some very significant changes to the design of the iPhone 17 Pro Max — especially if these mock-up renders from a Russian YouTube channel, Wylsacom, are accurate.

The YouTube video shows that the iPhone 17 Pro Max will look nothing like its predecessors, according to the rumors that this mock-up is based on.