Apple has filed a trademark to the European Union for Apple Pay Cash, the company’s new iMessage based peer-to-peer payments service due to be released with iOS 11.
Tech blog LetsGoDigital announced that the application was filed with the European Union Intellectual Property Office (EUIPO) on Thursday and has been classified as “computer software for use in connection with electronic payments and funds transfers.”
Apple Pay Cash will integrate with iMessage in iOS 11 so that users can make payments within chat threads. To send a payment, the user will authenticate with Touch ID on their iOS device or Apple Watch. It is also rumored that this could be done via facial recognition if this is a feature that the upcoming iPhone 8 offers.
Money that is received using this service will go onto an auto-generated Apple Pay cash card that will be stored in the Wallet app. You can then use this cash card to make regular payments in retail stores and on the web or transfer the funds to an allocated bank account.
As of yet, there are no further details about how Apple Pay Cash will work but the Brazilian tech blog iHelp BR did uncover code references in the framework that suggests that users will have to authenticate their identity via a driver’s license or photo ID before any money can be sent.
The trademark application is yet to be granted by the EUIPO but the fact that it has already been filed suggests that it may go out live throughout the EU as soon as it has rolled out in the U.S.
