It looks like Apple’s long-awaited, person-to-person payment service Apple Pay Cash could finally debut with the upcoming release of iOS 11.1, as Apple employees are reportedly testing the feature.
According to MacRumors, one of its forum members has been contacting an Apple employee who, using a device certificate that Apple has internally distributed, is testing Apple Pay Cash. Especially tantalizingly, they are said to be, in the process, using iOS 11.1.
Right now, iOS 11.1 is publicly available only in beta form and lacks Apple Pay Cash. However, there are reportedly Apple workers who are each using an internal-only beta profile and an especially approved Apple ID to put the service through its paces.
The MacRumors forum member has shared two screenshots. One sheds light on the setup process, while the other shows an error screen resulting from an attempt to use Apple Pay Cash to send money to a device not supporting the feature.
Apple Employees Testing Apple Pay Cash Internally in iOS 11.1 https://t.co/uSYcWO5jbh by @julipuli pic.twitter.com/myuGTehAJB
— MacRumors.com (@MacRumors) October 3, 2017
Apple announced Apple Pay Cash in June, but has stopped short of indicating a release time more specific than “this fall”. Given this fresh leak, it looks likely that Apple Pay Cash, which will allow speedy payments between iOS devices, will publicly debut in iOS 11.1.
Whether that will be a future beta of iOS 11.1 or the final version of the software remains unclear; at the time of writing, only one iOS 11.1 beta has been released.