By Lauren Goode
Mobile payments start-up Square is aiming to make payments with smartphones even easier by introducing an updated app that allows users to pay without taking their phone or credit card out of their pocket.
In addition, the company plans to update its app on the Google Android mobile operating system to incorporate these new features soon.
SquareThe latest version of Card Case allows users to “open a tab” via the app once they’ve arrived at or near a venue that uses the Square application.
The latest version of Square’s payment app, Card Case, includes something called “automatic tabs”, which uses the location-based technology of iPhone iOS5 to detect when users have arrived at or near a venue, such as a coffee shop. If the merchant is also using a Square application, the buyer can simply say his or her name to pay for the coffee. The updated Card Case application also includes Twitter integration, through which business owners can see reviews and comments from customers.
Square was co-founded by Jim McKelvey and Twitter creator Jack Dorsey and officially launched in December 2009. in June, the Wall Street Journal reported that the company had snagged $100 million in funding from a group led by Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, valuing the company at $1 billion.
In may of this year the company introduced Square Register, a software system through which merchants can receive and analyze payment transactions. currently, there are two ways that businesses can use Square: by accepting a credit card payment through a free, square-shaped dongle that plugs into an iPhone or iPad, or by a customer using the Card Case app, which the merchant then tracks using Square Register. Square says 20,000 merchants are now accepting payments via CardCase, and that it has shipped 800,000 Square readers. The readers are also sold with a rebate at Apple stores, Best buy, Radio Shack, Target and Wal-Mart.
But Square is not without competition; the mobile payments space has been growing rapidly, and the companies within the space use varying forms of technology for payments. Last spring Google introduced Google Wallet, which allows consumers with certain Google Android phones to pay for items by tapping the phone against a special terminal. EBay’s PayPal unit has predicted it will process $3 billion in mobile payments this year through PayPal Mobile. Intuit and VeriFone systems have gotten into the game, and financial services companies like Visa have also unveiled their own forms of mobile payments software.
Square declined to comment on the timeline for Square CardCase availability on the Android platform, saying only that it would be “soon.”
UPDATE: Square is planning an update to its Android app to incorporate these new features soon. an earlier version of this post incorrectly said it was planning an Android app soon.