Apple today: Developers can soon offer in‑app NFC transactions using the Secure Element

Starting with iOS 18.1, developers will be able to offer NFC contactless transactions using the Secure Element from within their own apps on iPhone, separate from Apple Pay and Apple Wallet.

So just like they were going to be forced to do in the EU and the US government was suing them over not allowing, other apps on your phone will be able to use the NFC chip to perform secure payments and other contactless actions.

This part really got me excited as well:

To make a contactless transaction within an app that utilizes these APIs, users can either open the app directly, or set the app as their default contactless app in iOS Settings, and double-click the side button on iPhone to initiate a transaction.

So not only can other apps do this, other apps can take over the "double-press the side button" shortcut on iPhones. This means Google Pay, PayPal, ShopPay, or countless other existing, popular wallets could be your wallet and accessed in a moment to pay in stores (after they've added support for this, of course). Wonderful!

I'm sure Apple was going to do this anyway and this has nothing to do with regulatory pressures, right? 😉