Square may have Apple Pay, but PayPal is the one with access to the rest of Apple.
PayPal will now be a payment option for users making online purchases in the Apple ecosystem (including purchases made in the App Store, iTunes, and Apple Music), the payments company announced today on its blog.
The partnership, which will begin in Canada and Mexico before rolling out to countries like the U.S. “soon after,” allows PayPal users to do things like ask Siri to make a payment via the PayPal app. This is something that should lead to a deeper connection for PayPal, according to voice commerce expert Brian Roemmele of Payfinders.
Said Roemmele via Twitter direct message:
[The deal] portends to a more deeper relationship in the future. Indeed this also is a big move to Voice Commerce and Voice Payments.
Apple Pay Cash will be the primary Voice Payment system on Siri but PayPal will be in high use. Square is left out in the cold again. So it is a huge move for PayPal.
The payments company will not be integrating with Apple’s vaulted digital wallet service (something that its competitor Square does have) but tying itself into the Apple online ecosystem means PayPal will have a greater chance for collaboration in the future.
It also means PayPal might become even more of a ubiquitous brand for consumers, an area it has dominated in recent years even over its own popular P2P app Venmo.
According to Roemmele, while a full PayPal-Apple Pay combination may not occur in the recent future, that might be a good thing for both companies. Said Roemmele:
I see no way for them to be the same product. But there is a good chance that PayPal will connect in new ways. Apple Pay is its own thing and it will continue to explode. Apple Pay Cash will be one of the big reasons.