Amid growing pressure from regulators, Apple on Wednesday announced it would open up NFC transactions to third-party developers. NFC, or Near Field Communication, is the short-range radio technology that powers Apple Pay and Wallet. Apple's exclusive access to NFC features on iPhones has been under scrutiny for years by the European Commission for restricting competition in the mobile payments space, leading Apple to finally open up its tap-and-go technology to third parties in the region.
Now, Apple is expanding access to other markets as well. According to the announcement, Apple will first make its new NFC and Secure Element APIs available to developers in Australia, Brazil, Canada, Japan, New Zealand, the UK, and the US, before expanding to other regions. The APIs will be available with the release of the iOS 18.1 update.
While Apple had long allowed third parties access to its contactless technology for things like reading NFC tags, an EU antitrust lawsuit forced the company to give competitors access to the iPhone's Secure Element tap-and-go mobile payment system. The decision allowed Apple to avoid antitrust fines of up to 10% of its total annual revenue, or roughly $40 billion.
As other markets take their cue from EU regulations, Apple may be preempting further complications by opening up access to NFC to developers.
The new APIs will enable developers to offer competitive Wallet products and other apps that offer in-app contactless transactions such as in-store payments, car keys, closed-loop transportation, corporate badges, student IDs, home keys, hotel keys, merchant loyalty, points cards, event tickets, and more. Government IDs will also be supported in the future. Expanded access will likely spur innovation as developers update existing apps with new features or build apps that take advantage of new features.
Developers will still have to enter into a “commercial agreement with Apple” and agree to Apple's terms, though the company hasn't yet said what that means. The agreement will allow developers to request rights and pay associated fees, meaning this won't be a free-to-use service.
Once accessible, developers will be able to use the new APIs to access the Secure Element, a chip on iPhone that stores sensitive information securely on the device, and users will be able to open third-party apps directly or set them as the default in iOS settings and use them by double-clicking the side button like they can today with Apple Pay.