Square Integrates With Apple Desktop, Chromebook

Square has announced that it is releasing two new ways for businesses to take payments on their Apple devices and Google Chromebook.

“We want you to be able to run your business however you want — and never miss a sale,” the company wrote in a blog post. “Whether you take payments via Square Stand in a restaurant, with a phone and reader in a retail pop-up or with a computer in a medical office, we want to make sure our tools work seamlessly in your environment.”

With that in mind, Apple and Chromebook users can now take payments using Square Reader for magstripe, which turns the computer into a checkout station via Virtual Terminal.

After setup (which only takes a few minutes), businesses can take payments on an Apple computer that runs Google Chrome or Apple Safari browsers, or on a Chromebook with Google Chrome.

For users who already have Square Reader for magstripe, they can simply plug it into the computer’s audio jack, open Virtual Terminal, follow the prompts on the screen and begin swiping cards to immediately take payments from the computer.

For those with an iPhone 7, iPhone 8 or iPhone X and a magstripe reader (who have had to deal with the inconvenience of using an adapter), Square Reader for magstripe now has a new Lightning connection option that is compatible with Apple Lightning devices.

“We’ve been using Square’s new reader for magstripe with the Lightning connector every week at farmer’s markets to sell our goat cheese, and we love how it provides a seamless experience,” said Ben Guyton of Pure Luck Farm and Dairy. “We can swipe using just one hand, and rather than worrying about payments, we can focus on talking with our customers and selling our cheese.”

The reader works with the free Square Point-of-Sale app to allow businesses to take payments on their Apple smartphone or tablet.