Mobile Payments Leader Square Shows Off New SDK

Square has been one of the leaders of mobile payments since it got started, being one of the original mobile payments providers in the field. Now, it’s recently staged a substantial advance as it showed off a new software development kit that was designed to give users the ability to add in-app payments to current and future applications.

The new SDK is said to produce, according to word from Square, an in-app payment solution that’s utterly Payment Card Industry (PCI) compliant and will work equally well with Android or iOS apps, which is the majority of apps released around the world. The app will be available for users in Australia, Canada, Japan, the United Kingdom, and the United States. China, notably, is not included in this release, and neither is India.

The SDK is also said to be completely customized and works to offer the end user a way to easily enter credit card information while also addressing. Users can also use debit cards—storing a card for later use is also an option—and both Apple Pay and Google Pay will be accepted through the app.

A handful of companies were given the ability to beta-test the SDK and one of them, Brushfire, came out all smiles. The ticketing and registration tool noted that it was both “…painless and easy to use,” and opened up new options the company literally did not have before the kit was released. As a result, conversions were up 20 percent, representing a new revenue stream for the company.

In-app payments are one of the great frontiers of mobile payments because it’s a comparatively new way to make payments while using a mobile device. It’s all contained within the mobile device, but by doing so users can unlock a range of new options in content and functionality; from buying ebooks to read on a device to getting access to local weather, in-app payments can make it all happen.

Thus, Square’s new SDK should prove a welcome addition in the field as app makers look for new ways to monetize their creations and mobile payments platforms look for new services to provide to generate their vital percentage of processed payments.