According to the source, the new feature dubbed “Nearby Payments” works on devices running iOS 8 and provides an alternative to its previous means of sending money by way of text message, mobile number or email.
Cash users can configure their nearby visibility in the updated app so that they’re visible only to their contacts, or to everyone. The latter would make sense in larger groups – like when you’re splitting the bill at a table where you don’t have all the parties in your own address book, for example.
The Cash app for peer-to-peer payments originally grew out of the way some portion of Square users were interacting with the company’s flagship application and card reader. That is, they were using it to split tabs or for paying back friends after large group purchases of some kind. With Cash, users can transfer money back and forth without incurring the charges associated with credit card payments.
Square Cash is available for both iOS and Android, but only the iOS app (so far) is receiving support for Nearby Payments.
In recent news, Square has just closed the Series E round it had been raising.
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