Apple to open NFC chip to developers in iOS 18.1

Apple Pay is the payment system of the Big Apple inaugurated in 2014 after the introduction of the iPhone 6. Since then, the dynamics of Apple Pay has been exponential and criticism regarding the exclusive restrictions of use of Apple payment services has multiplied. It was nothing more than a strategy on the part of the company to ensure control of transactions, maintain the security and privacy of users in addition to strengthening the financial services ecosystem itself. Little by little, European regulations have forced Apple to make changes and it seems that part of these changes are extrapolated to other countries since Apple has announced that it will open the NFC chip to third-party developers starting with iOS 18.1 in more countries,

NFC chip will be open to third-party developers in iOS 18.1

The iPhone’s Near Field Communication (NFC) chip allows, among other things, payments via Apple Pay, the ability to carry transport tickets in certain countries, the reading of labels with NFC technology and much more. However, Apple has always wanted to maintain strict regulatory control over the use of the chip in iPhones. This has caused broad and powerful regulatory investigations to prevent monopolistic practices. In fact, this has already led Apple to make major changes to its structure in the European Union, even forcing it to open up the NFC chip to third-party developers.

And it all goes much further since it seems that Apple has given in and finally will open the NFC chip to third-party developers in more countries according to the new press release published on its official website. It announces that it will be iOS 18.1 when developers will be able to offer Contactless transactions via NFC using the Secure Element environment:

The new NFC and SE (Secure Element) APIs enable developers to offer contactless transactions within apps for in-store payments, car keys, closed-loop public transportation, corporate credentials, student IDs, house keys, hotel bill keys, merchant loyalty and rewards cards, event tickets, and, in the future, government IDs.

In addition to announcing these two new APIs (NFC and SE), they also confirmed that the user You can set up an app other than Apple Wallet as your contactless app. In other words, we can access a different environment than Apple Wallet by double-tapping the lock button as if we were going to pay somewhere or access the cards stored in the app. All this under a solution with high security and protection of user privacy.

This technology and all its documentation is now available in the Dev Center and will arrive in Australia, Brazil, Canada, Japan, New Zealand, the United Kingdom and the United States with the iOS 18.1 update which will be released later this year. . In addition, it has been confirmed that Locations will be added later.