Apple could be launching a peer-to-peer payment service for Apple Pay

This rumor has been going on for years, but 2017 might be the year of peer-to-peer Apple Pay. According to a new report from Recode, the company could be launching a new Apple Pay feature later this year so that you can send money to other people using the service.

While you all know and use Apple Pay if you have an iPhone and live in one of the countries where it works, Apple Pay has always been about paying for stuff in retail stores and online. The company is missing out on a big lucrative market with peer-to-peer payments. The success of Venmo and Square Cash proves that.

This service would work between two iPhone users. Recode’s report doesn’t say how you would send money, but I feel like iMessage could be the right platform for this kind of things.

In addition to that, Apple could be working on a pre-paid Visa card to cash out on your Apple Pay wallet. If someone sends you money using Apple Pay, you could be able to use this balance using this card. This way, you don’t have to withdraw it your bank account and wait a few days.

I don’t think Apple would charge for this service as competing services don’t charge for this kind of transactions. It could be a way to promote Apple Pay and make people add cards to their iPhone instead.

Rumor has it that Apple Pay usage isn’t taking off as much as expected. Let’s see if the company announces this feature as part of iOS 11 at the WWDC conference in June.