Apple Keeps It Within The Family For Apple Pay Cash Beta

Rumors are swirling that Apple is currently testing Apple Pay Cash internally using iOS 11.1 and an accompanying device certificate.

According to news from 9to5Mac, 11.1 was released in beta to developers last week, but not everyone received Apple Pay Cash. The new service was announced at Apple’s Worldwide Developers Conference over the summer, but the feature wasn’t included when iOS 11 launched to the public last month. It is rumored to be slated to officially launch at the end of October.

Apple Pay Cash is a person-to-person (P2P) payment service that allows Apple Pay mobile wallet users to send and receive money within their friends and family network in a quick and secure manner.

Two screenshots shared by an Apple employee show the process of setting up Apple Pay Cash, as well as an error message that comes up when a user attempts to send money to a recipient who doesn’t have the feature set up. There is also a look at the virtual Apple Pay Cash card that users receive, which can be used online or in store with Apple Pay transactions.

The service, which will be competing with Square Cash and Venmo, integrates directly with iMessage and allows users to send money to each other with no fee for debit cards and a 3 percent fee for credit cards. When users receive money, they can transfer it to a bank account or spend it using Apple Pay online or in retail stores.

Since the Apple employees are testing the person-to-person payment platform internally with iOS 11.1, Apple Pay Cash will likely be included either in future beta testing or when iOS 11.1 is officially released to the public.