The IT Nerd

I’ve gotten a lot of questions about Apple Pay Cash coming to Canada in the near future because of this story that I posted recently. Thus I thought that a follow up would be in order laying out all the evidence that I have at hand.

First, from where I stand it’s not a matter of if but when Apple Pay Cash comes to Canada. That’s because MobileSyrup has reported that Apple has filed for a trademark for Apple Pay Cash within Canada last year. Apple may have done that to stop someone from snatching the trademark out from under them, but it is more likely that they did it because the service is coming to Canada at some point.

Second, Apple Pay Cash appears to be rolling out in the EU based on a couple of reports of support for Apple Pay Cash showing up on some iDevices in various EU countries over the last couple of days. Why is this relevant? It’s relevant because that this is a similar path that Apple took when they rolled out Apple Pay. Which is that they went to Europe and a few other places before they came to Canada. On top of that, Apple Pay setup screens have appeared in Canada recently as per iPhoneInCanada.ca. That too seems to support the theory that Apple Pay Cash is coming to Canada sooner rather than later. So does the fact that watchOS 5 brought an Apple Pay Cash button that watchOS users have seen consistently.

I just noticed this in the Messages app on the Apple Watch. Is @apple Pay cash coming to Canada? I am investigating further. pic.twitter.com/iQRCQy60Ac

— The IT Nerd (@The_IT_Nerd) September 18, 2018

So what’s holding things up in Canada? My guess is that the banks who are known for being conservative when it comes to tech like this are slowing things down. That was the case with Apple Pay before it finally arrived here in Canada. Another factor might be Interac who has a service that lets you send money to people electronically that is somewhat like Apple Pay Cash and has broad adoption with the banks here in Canada. They would be less than thrilled with having any sort of competition in that space. Though I suspect that they would jump on board under the right conditions.

The fact is that even with all these clues, I have yet to see anything that definitively says when Apple Pay Cash might come to Canada. It might be next week, or next month, or next year. The only thing that I can do is ping my sources, keep an eye on places like Reddit, and keep an eye on my various iDevices to see if any new info on this front pops up. And as soon as I have something substantial, I will share it with you ASAP. Conversely, if you see anything or hear anything, please let me know via leaving a comment or dropping me an email.

Here’s to hoping that Apple Pay Cash shows up in Canada sooner rather than later.

This entry was posted on October 3, 2018 at 9:46 am and is filed under Commentary with tags Apple. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.