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Apple Pay on iPhone 5s: Not Without an Apple Watch

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Apple Pay was launched earlier this week alongside the release of iOS 8.1. While the latest update is compatible on the iPhone 5s, it turns out that Apple Pay is not. Instead, you’ll have to have an Apple Watch to get Apple Pay to work on older iPhones.

Apple Pay is the company’s own digital wallet service to take on the growing market of digital payment systems that have already been released by companies like Google.

Apple Pay allows you to store your credit card information on your iPhone and use it to buy stuff at any store that supports Apple Pay. The iPhone 6 has an NFC chip that allows you to tap the pay terminal at a store to instantly buy goods. It’s perhaps the easiest way to buy stuff and you don’t have to hand over your credit card to the cashier. It’s all done wirelessly between your iPhone and the pay terminal.

Apple Pay also works with mobile shopping apps, allowing you to pay with a single touch of the Touch ID fingerprint sensor in shopping apps that support the feature.

Apple Pay

The iPad Air 2 and the iPad mini 3 also support Apple Pay, but are only limited to in-app purchases since neither devices have an NFC chip inside for wireless payments. As for the iPhone 5s, iPhone 5c, and the iPhone 5, it turns out that Apple Pay isn’t compatible with these devices without the help from the yet-to-be-launched Apple Watch.

Of course, Apple skimmed over this important detail and just slyly referenced it on its website in a chart all the way at the bottom, but it can be easy to miss. In turns out, even if older iPhone devices could technically support Apple Pay, users can’t take advantage of it at all. However, the Apple Watch will work with the iPhone 5s, iPhone 5c, and the iPhone 5 when it eventually launches next year, and the wearable device will support Apple Pay

So pairing an Apple Watch to your older iPhone will essentially make it compatible with Apple Pay, but only through the Apple Watch, meaning that you’ll only be able to use it in stores and not inside of shopping apps.

Screen Shot 2014-10-21 at 4.08.42 PM

The fact that the iPhone 5s doesn’t come with support for Apple Pay is rather baffling and many iPhone 5s users have taken to social media to voice their displeasure. It’s perhaps even more baffling since the iPhone 5s is already equipped with Apple’s Touch ID, which is a huge part of what makes Apple Pay work so smoothly and stay secure at the same time.

However, we can’t be too surprised by this, considering that Apple is notorious for only bringing new and exciting software features to newer devices, mostly to persuade consumers to upgrade to these newer devices so that they can take advantage of the newer features. Because if users don’t buy new Apple products, the company doesn’t make any money.

If you happen to have a newer Apple device, such as an iPhone 6 or an iPad Air 2 or iPad mini 3, here’s how to set up Apple Pay and get going with digital payments.

11 Comments

11 Comments

  1. Klara DKubera

    10/22/2014 at 3:31 am

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  2. Tyle

    10/22/2014 at 4:16 am

    This is the dumbest thing I’ve read all day. Of course Apple Pay doesn’t work with the iPhone 5, 5S or 5C. These phones came out before Apple started putting NFC in the phones. The only phones with NFC are the 6 and 6 plus. This shouldn’t come as a shock. They shouldn’t have to mention it!

    • Craig Lloyd

      10/22/2014 at 5:20 am

      The new iPads support Apple Pay and they don’t have NFC chips, so I fail to see the significance of your comment.

      • Joe

        10/22/2014 at 12:26 pm

        Yeah, I agree with Tyle, you didn’t do your research. The reason why iPhone 5/5S/5C don’t and won’t have Apple Pay is because they don’t have the NFC hardware for in-store purchases or the encrypted chip for in-app purchases. I would just admit your error, retract the article and move on.

  3. Tony

    10/22/2014 at 8:44 am

    There 2 parts to apple pay like the table in the article shows. are the “In Stores” (which uses NFC) and “In Apps” which uses the fingerprint ID which the I-phone 5S has. The point this article is trying to make about the iphone 5S is that you cannot use Apple Pay for in app purchases even though it does have a fingerprint sensor and it does not NFC. The reason for that is the processor on the iphone 5s. There is a “secure component” (whatever that is) on the A8 and A8X processors on this year”s group of IPads and IPhones that ensures the transactions are secure that is not on Apple’s A7 processor on the iphone 5S.

  4. Selvin

    10/22/2014 at 10:43 am

    gud thing I’m not too hot for 6 or 6 + so who cares about Apple pay keep ur watch don’t really like tht crap anyway so 😝 there !

  5. Harry

    10/22/2014 at 8:52 pm

    The information in this article is not entirely correct. Apple Pay works with iPhone 6 and 6 Plus because both phones have an NFC chip which the iPhone 5s lacks. It also works with iPad Air 2 and iPad Mini 3 but only over the Internet, not in stores. Therefore you could say the only products that take full advantage of Apple Pay are the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus. Just because the iPhone 5s has Touch ID doesn’t mean it should work with Apple Pay. I wasn’t surprised at all. If you want the latest technology buy the latest phone.

  6. Harry

    10/22/2014 at 8:56 pm

    Tony, I don’t think that’s true. iPad Mini 3 can still use Apple Pay for “In App Purchases” yet it still has last year’s A7 processor and M7 co-processor. Therefore there is nothing significant in A8 or A8X that allows Apple Pay to work. I think it was merely a way for Apple to get people to buy the latest technology. Again this doesn’t come as a surprise to me at all.

  7. Bo

    10/24/2014 at 7:51 am

    Experiencing significant amount of app crashes on iOS 8.1 iPad2

  8. Jason Buchanan

    10/27/2014 at 5:36 pm

    It seems as though Apple is up to another trick by trying to convence people to buy a new iphone. My example is the continuity with yosemite only working on 2012 and newer MacBook Airs. Not true as I used a kext program to fix the Blue tooth chip and now I am running handoff on my 2011. So long story short it shouldn’t be long until someone breaks the code.

  9. nicky

    04/13/2015 at 6:15 am

    this tells me nothing

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