Apple Pay is Magic!
Setting up Apple Pay as an Indian
In India, the iPhone Wallet App is almost useless. I say almost because it could be used for one thing: adding movies tickets (if and only if you bought the ticket using the BookMyShow mobile app). A few other event apps did use it too, but other than passes for such events, the Wallet App did nothing more. It didn’t store my debit cards or credit cards and the wallet-less life I envisioned for myself was almost absent.
I use almost again because there is another form of payment used in India called UPI. To use UPI one has to scan a barcode, tap one’s unique ID into their phone and make a payment. While this system worked flawlessly for the most part — you could even pay individuals as well as businesses — the UX of the whole process wasn’t the most seamless.
You had to open an app, usually third party, scan a barcode by giving it access to your camera (which also asked for access to your picture gallery — shudder), and then type in a code from your own memory (which could also be shared). For me this felt like too many steps. Especially when I knew my phone was capable of NFC payments via Apple Pay, which had not arrived in India.
