The world’s first Apple Pay rival for iPhones has launched, but it might bring some drawbacks

1 week ago 4

(Image credit: Visa)

The world’s first Apple Pay alternative has launched in Norway
It could prompt other services to follow suit in Europe
There are both benefits and drawbacks to this move

Apple Pay lets you wirelessly pay for almost anything using just your iPhone, but for years, it’s been locked down so that only Apple can add new features. That means Apple fans have been denied the choice of other providers who might bring new ideas to the table – but that’s just changed in a seismic way for European users.

Norwegian payment service Vipps has just launched its own Apple Pay rival – the first such service in the world – letting its customers pay for items with their iPhone without ever having to go through Apple’s own service. That could open the door to many other Apple Pay rivals hitting the scene.

Vipps’ tap-to-pay scheme supports roughly 70% of Norway’s banking customers. So, you can now change your default payment service to Vipps instead of Apple Pay if you're among the select few. It’ll work at any payment terminal that works with BankAxept cards – Norway’s national payment system – which covers about 90% of payment terminals in the country.

According to a machine-translated version of Vipps’ blog post marking the announcement, the company will “add more simplifications, support for international cards and more banks continuously.” Support for Visa and MasterCard is reportedly coming in the next few months, and worldwide payments should be made available before summer 2025.

Currently, Vipps’ service is only available in Norway, but there are plans to extend it to Denmark, Finland, and Sweden in 2025.

Pros and cons

Vipps’ Apple Pay rival offers all the same features as Apple’s option, including verification using Face ID, Touch ID, or your device passcode. Now that Apple has opened up access to its NFC system, other providers may introduce missing features from Apple Pay, which could add a dash of competition to a solution that has been restricted to Apple since its inception.

That said, a move like this might not be entirely positive. It means another system that vendors will have to support, potentially fragmenting payment options for users. In addition, you need to trust that Vipps’ Apple Pay alternative is safe – while Apple is well-known for its device security, Vipps is a less well-known name for people outside of Norway to place their trust in.

And before you get too excited, this kind of move will likely be limited to Europe for the time being. It all happened because the European Union (EU) forced Apple to open up the NFC payment system that underlies Apple Pay to other companies, which has paved the way for Vipps to launch its offering.

Still, it shows that alternatives to Apple Pay are possible, at least in Europe. It will be interesting to see if other firms join Vipps, what new features come about as a result of more competition, and whether Apple is spurred into improving Apple Pay for its users.

Alex Blake has been fooling around with computers since the early 1990s, and since that time he's learned a thing or two about tech. No more than two things, though. That's all his brain can hold. As well as TechRadar, Alex writes for iMore, Digital Trends and Creative Bloq, among others. He was previously commissioning editor at MacFormat magazine. That means he mostly covers the world of Apple and its latest products, but also Windows, computer peripherals, mobile apps, and much more beyond. When not writing, you can find him hiking the English countryside and gaming on his PC.

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