Circle brings blockchain payments to its instant messaging app in iOS 10 update

Blockchain payments firm Circle has integrated with Apple’s iMessage instant messaging app, allowing users to make payments in dollars, euros, pounds and bitcoin via the popular text messaging platform.

Circle executives said the launch marks the end of preparations that began in June when Apple announced it would open iMessage to third-party developers.

“We decided to take advantage of this opportunity,” Circle Chief Executive Jeremy Allaire said in an interview. “It was always our plan to build an app-less payments model that would work wherever people interact with each other.”

The news was confirmed days after social media and Asian media reports suggested Circle would make the announcement.

Allaire and fellow Circle co-founder Sean Neville said making payments available for “the world’s most used app” would better aid the transition to a payments platform that not only leverages the bitcoin blockchain but could potentially compete with more established payment apps.

Allaire told CoinDesk:

"It's going to be a big part of the future, it's all about how we make money and how the internet works. We're talking about photos and content being delivered through social messaging, and that's the core medium of the internet for a lot of people."

As a result of this integration, Circle users who have the app installed will be able to access Circle from a new icon built into iMessage. Users who don't have it installed will also be able to receive money.

According to Neville, payments on the Circle platform are instant, but consumers still have to wait a few days for the money to appear in their bank accounts.

“Today if you use the app, if you have dollars and you send me euros, I instantly have euros and I can put them somewhere else or transfer them to non-Circle customers. If I want to cash out to my checking account, I’m still at the mercy of my bank,” he continued.

As evidenced by some recent App Store moves, Apple’s stance on blockchain and digital currencies remains opaque.

In the past few weeks, cryptocurrency-focused app companies including ShapeShift and Jaxx have reportedly put pressure on the company to remove support for certain currencies.

Android compatibility

In their statement, Allaire and Neville also used the announcement to hint at the benefits of technology standards, in this case Short Message Service (SMS), which has long served as a platform for mobile communications.

Because iMessage uses this underlying technology, Allaire and Neville said Android users will be able to receive payment requests through the integration, but the process will have a different user experience.

"One of the cool things about using iMessage as a container is its SMS app, so it allows you to send messages to any of your contacts who have an SMS-compatible device," Allaire said.

Allaire and Neville said they see opening up the iMessage platform as a step for Apple to compete with other companies, such as Tencent and Alipay, which have been very successful in China.

Elsewhere, Allaire said iMessage users can expand the app into full-screen mode and set their preferred funding source for payments, whether that’s dollars, bitcoin or pounds.

Allaire stressed that the policy on platform monetization will remain the same even within iMessage, adding:

"We believe that holding and sending data should be free, and we don't charge anything for it."