Apple Pay Later enters expanded beta testing, can launch soon; Know what it is

Buzz around Apple Pay Later first began last year after it was announced in the Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) 2022. It was a ‘buy now, pay later’ model service which would allow users to split their bills in equal parts and pay it over a period of time. But the feature did not make it to the public last year and many have been wondering about its launch. Reports are now suggesting that this new financial service by Apple can soon be launched after the beta testing phase was expanded to all the Apple retail employees in the US.

According to a report by Bloomberg’s Apple tipster Mark Gurman, Apple made a beta version of the service available to its company’s more than 80,000 retail employees in the US as an expanded testing of the product. It is now believed that a public release will be the next step and it can come within the next few weeks. Earlier, Tim Cook had also said that Apple Pay Later will be “launching soon”. The feature will be integrated with Apple's Wallet app on the iPhone and iPad.

What is Apple Pay Later

As mentioned above, Apple Pay Later is a financial service available within Apple Wallet which is based on the ‘buy now, pay later’ model. For the unaware, this model essentially grants short term loans (between 15 to 90 days) without any interest rate as long as the user pays back in the stipulated time.

Apple Pay Later will allow all its customers in the United States to split their purchases in four equal payments over a period of six weeks. It would not levy any fees or interest for using the service. The feature will be available in any place where Apple Pay is accepted online or in-app using the Mastercard network. It should also be noted that the feature, for now, will only be available in the US. Apple has not revealed whether it will be coming to India anytime soon.

According to the Bloomberg report, Apple is working on another financial product which is called Apple Pay Monthly Installments. It will be used for larger purchases and will allow users to split the bill into monthly installments over a longer period of time. Details of this service are not yet known.