Apple may resolve an annoying issue regarding Apple Pay in iOS 16. The company appears to be expanding support for third-party browsers, including Microsoft Edge and Google Chrome. Until now, Apple’s mobile payment service was only available through the Safari browser app.
In a July 29 tweet, MacRumors contributor Steve Moser noted the change in the iOS 16 beta 4. He states that Apple Pay works on Chrome and Edge in the new iOS beta. He also says that it should work in any third-party browser.
On the latest iOS 16 beta Apple Pay works in Edge, Chrome and I assume any third party browser. On iOS 15 Apple Pay only works in Safari. pic.twitter.com/x7zV5xCuiC
— Steve Moser (@SteveMoser) July 30, 2022
Moser did not note support for other browser apps like Firefox. However, The Verge reported in a Reddit post from early July that Apple Pay does work with Firefox in iOS 16 beta 2. So, it stands to reason that you can expect to be able to use Apple Pay with most third-party browsers when iOS 16 officially launches later this year. (Although, it’s always possible that Apple will remove this third-party browser support before the iOS 16 release.)
Apple may be expanding Apple Pay support to get ahead of a proposed European Union regulation that forbids companies that provide core platform services (like the iOS App Store) from using their position to hinder third-party browser functionality. Since all mobile browsers for iOS are built using the Safari render engine, Apple would violate this regulation if passed.
However, you shouldn’t expect to see Apple Pay coming to third-party desktop browsers on macOS. As Moser noted in a follow-up tweet, “This doesn’t work in Edge or Chrome on that latest macOS beta because I assume it requires the third party render engines to be updated where as Edge and Chrome on iOS use Safari’s render engine.”
