Improving the Square Register API Payment Experience

We recently introduced new functionality in the Square Point of Sale iOS and Android apps that greatly improves the payment experience when using Register API.

On iOS, we’ve added functionality that keeps your Square contactless & chip card reader connected in the background (note: this is already available on Android). And, on Android, we’ve enabled a transparent background for Register API customers.

Simply update your version of the Square Point of Sale App to take advantage of these improvements.

iOS — Speeding Up Contactless Transactions

Once you or your customer pairs and connects the contactless & chip card reader to the Square Point of Sale app, the reader will maintain its connection any time you app switch and while your app is foregrounded. This means that whenever you initiate a transaction and the API app switches into the Square app, the reader no longer has to reconnect in order to begin processing the payment. Once the app switch takes place, you’ll see the reader’s green light come on, indicating that it’s ready to take a payment almost immediately. In addition to speeding up transaction times, this update also has the added benefit of improving your reader’s battery life.

Android — A More Seamless Payment Experience

When your app initiates a transaction using the Square Register API, the payment flow now has a transparent background layered over your app. This creates an even more seamless experience for merchants using apps that integrate with the Register API, as it no longer feels like they are leaving your app and entering a new environment every time they process a payment.

This is what it looks like using our Bikeshop sample app:

How do I enable this?

The only thing you and your customers need to do to take advantage of these improvements is update to the latest version of the Square Point of Sale app from Apple’s App Store or Google Play.

We’d love to hear your feedback on the API and the new and improved app switch experience. Lets us know your thoughts at @SquareDev.

To learn more about our APIs visit our developer documentation site.