Apple has added Apple Pay support to third-party browsers in recent betas of iOS 16 and iPadOS 16.
The added support, spotted by MacRumors contributor Steve Moser, marks a change from iOS 15 and iPadOS 15 and earlier, where in-browser Apple Pay is exclusively available in Safari. Moser found that Apple Pay is available in Microsoft Edge and Google Chrome as of iOS 16 developer beta 4, and other users have noticed Apple Pay support in Mozilla Firefox.
Moser noted that Apple Pay support continues to be unavailable on the macOS versions of Edge and Chrome, presumably since they do not use WebKit, Apple's browser engine that is mandatory for third-party browsers on iOS and iPadOS. This suggests that Apple Pay support is dependent on WebKit and this is the location of any changes Apple has made to expand support for Apple Pay.
This doesn’t work in Edge or Chrome on that latest macOS beta because I assume it requires the third party render engines to be updated where as Edge and Chrome on iOS use Safari’s render engine. — Steve Moser (@SteveMoser) July 30, 2022
It is not clear when Apple made the change, as some users spotted Apple Pay support in third-party browsers as early as developer beta 2, while others only saw support added with developer beta 3.
While the change is a step forward for users of third-party browsers on iOS and iPadOS, it is difficult not to see the expanded support for Apple Pay in the context of Apple's growing antitrust issues, with Apple's browser engine ban and restrictions on third-party apps coming under increasing scrutiny around the world.
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