Norwegian payment app Vipps is the first service to take advantage of the new, more open iOS ecosystem thanks to EU regulations. Starting today, Norwegians can use Vipps for tap-to-pay transactions and online payments, and they can even set the app as the default payment option on their iPhones, according to MacRumors.
This is all thanks to the commitments Apple made in response to an audit by EU regulators.
Since its launch a decade ago, Apple Pay has been the only way to pay with a touch on an iPhone. That changes with iOS 18.1, which makes NFC touch payment available to third-party developers for the first time. Earlier this year, Apple committed to opening up the API after EU regulators found Apple Pay to be anti-competitive.
Pressure from the EU has recently forced Apple to open up the famously locked iPhone in unprecedented ways, from adding RCS support to the ability to uninstall virtually any app from the phone. But unlocking the NFC chip is a particularly interesting test, as it could open up a whole new and useful way to use your phone – or create a mess of competing payment and identity storage platforms that don’t cooperate with each other.
Either way, it’s going to be a big deal, and the first step into this new era has been taken by a small financial organization in Scandinavia.
