Square Adds Passbook Integration and Gift Cards

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Square CEO Jack Dorsey today announced via Twitter that Square has added gift card capabilities to its iOS apps. The gift cards come alongside Passbook integration, which allows customers to send Square gift cards from local retailers and redeem them with Passbook.

Both of Square's iOS apps, merchant and consumer, have been updated to reflect the new changes.

Square Wallet, the consumer half of Square's payment system, gives customers the ability to purchase and receive gift cards from any retailer that uses Square Register to process payments. Many small businesses that previously didn’t offer gift cards will now be able to via Square.

Square Register, which is designed for merchants, lets business owners accept the gift cards using a QR code, Square Wallet, or Apple’s Passbook.

squaregiftcards

Square says the process is a simple one.

Give
Find a place your friends or family will love in Square Wallet. Choose the amount, write a special message, pick a theme and send. Instant gratification.

Receive
Save your Square gift card to Square Wallet so it's there when you need it. Using it is as easy as buying with Square Wallet. Simply say your name.

With Passbook integration, iOS users don't even need to access Square Wallet, which greatly simplifies the act of giving and receiving gift cards. This update will likely add a significant boost to the $10 billion per year in payments that Square already processes, and it is also a huge boon for independent retailers.

Both of Square’s apps, Square Wallet and Square Register, are free downloads in the App Store.

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Top Rated Comments

ideal.dreams Avatar
ideal.dreams
165 months ago
This would be awesome if more than one local business used square in my area :p
Score: 2 Votes (Like | Disagree)
ConCat Avatar
ConCat
165 months ago
How long before Apple kills off Passbook. It looks like a disastrous failure to me. In the UK I can think one company who offer Passbook integration, and that's Starbucks. At the moment they are a very unpopular company over here. After that I'm stuck to think of another company that supports the service.

If you use the App store and try and search for apps that offer the integration, there just isn't a search function there for this.

To me it just looks doomed at the moment, no one seems to be clamouring to support this standard.

Well, the truth is only specific kinds of apps have any reason to use Passbook, other apps just tend to lag behind others in feature adoption. It's still fairly new.
Score: 1 Votes (Like | Disagree)
charlituna Avatar
charlituna
165 months ago
How long before Apple kills off Passbook. .

Unlikely to happen. They will keep it even if the only thing it's good for are their egiftcards
Score: 1 Votes (Like | Disagree)
campingsk8er Avatar
campingsk8er
165 months ago
How long before Apple kills off Passbook. It looks like a disastrous failure to me. In the UK I can think one company who offer Passbook integration, and that's Starbucks. At the moment they are a very unpopular company over here. After that I'm stuck to think of another company that supports the service.

If you use the App store and try and search for apps that offer the integration, there just isn't a search function there for this.

To me it just looks doomed at the moment, no one seems to be clamouring to support this standard.

It's been out for less than 3 months....... Do you expect it to be the end all thing this soon? please enlighten me on anything that was COMPLETELY successful, right out of the gate? Completely means not one person has a problem with it and they never have to fix anything with it
Score: 1 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Small White Car Avatar
Small White Car
165 months ago
That's how it works right now. Passbook passes can be accepted from either your iOS/Mac mail client or your web browser

Then Apple's biggest problem is education because every time I read about Passbook it seems to work a different way.

I'm pretty sure it's not actually changing every week which means that Apple has done a terrible job of explaining it.
Score: 1 Votes (Like | Disagree)
viacavour Avatar
viacavour
165 months ago
But the gift receiver needs Square Wallet for this to be received, right?

That's going to slow things down, just like how no single 'SMS Replacement App' ever became halfway as successful as iMessage has. Having to call someone and say "install this thing so I can send you this other thing" is always a big hindrance.

It would be nice if Passbook can grow to where it can just accept things directly from an e-mail...so I could send from Square and the receiver could just approve the e-mail and have it go to Passbook even if they've never heard of Square before.
That's how it works right now. Passbook passes can be accepted from either your iOS/Mac mail client or your web browser.

For Square's gift card service, I suspect you will need the Square client to receive the gift. In general, Passbook passes don't need any special iOS app or client to redeem/use. You use the built-in Passbook app.

----------

How long before Apple kills off Passbook. It looks like a disastrous failure to me. In the UK I can think one company who offer Passbook integration, and that's Starbucks. At the moment they are a very unpopular company over here. After that I'm stuck to think of another company that supports the service.

If you use the App store and try and search for apps that offer the integration, there just isn't a search function there for this.

To me it just looks doomed at the moment, no one seems to be clamouring to support this standard.
The AppStore does not list all Passbook apps.

Check the Passbook wiki page for a list of Passbook apps and services worldwide:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Passbook_(application)
Score: 1 Votes (Like | Disagree)
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