Recap: Square Unboxed 2023

We hope you feel inspired after attending Square Unboxed 2023, a partner and developer event. In case you missed it, we heard from Vijay Vachani, General Manager, Global Head of Developers and Partners, and Mike Ward, Head of Product, Developers and Partners, about the state of the platform and the progress made in the last 12 months. They also shared a selection of new product and feature announcements detailed below. We held a Q&A focused on the future of AI at Square with Square CEO Alyssa Henry and Peter Welinder, VP, Product and Partnerships, OpenAI. Block’s Chief Operations Officer, Amrita Ahuja, discussed key industry trends and spoke about the overall strategy at Block. We heard from Lizzy Eisenberg, Head of North America Enterprise Sales, Cash App and Afterpay, about how these businesses fit with the Square strategy and the Block story long-term. Finally, we held a panel discussion with Square seller, Red Bay Coffee, and Square partners, Reference Health and Monstarlab. They told us how they successfully use the platform, and discussed how leveraging data helps sellers anticipate seasonality and foot traffic more effectively.

We also made some big announcements:

Payments

• Terminal API Custom Workflows (Beta) — Developers can now use Terminal API to trigger additional workflows on Square Terminal, beyond collecting payments. With a new set of Terminal API actions, sellers can collect a buyer’s signature or contact information, ask buyers to select from a menu of options or agree to terms of service, and even display a QR code to push certain workflows from the Terminal to the buyer’s device.

  Read the docs to get started.

• Terminal API Custom Idle Screen (GA) — Sellers can now display their business name and a rotating set of images on the Square Terminal screen when idle, enabling a branded checkout experience. This feature does not require any developer work, as sellers can upload images directly via Square Dashboard.

  Read the docs to learn more.

• POS API: Tap to Pay on Android (GA) — Sellers can now turn their Android mobile devices into powerful payment technology. With Tap to Pay on Android, sellers can run a POS API integrated application on their Android devices and accept contactless payments without connecting to Square hardware. Sellers can access this feature without any developer work required.

  Read the docs to learn more.

• Subscriptions API: Square Catalog and Orders Integrations (GA) — Developers can now streamline subscription configuration by attaching catalog items to a single subscription plan, enabling sellers to apply subscription rules to a group of items. They can also automate updates to taxes, inventory, and other attributes linked to items within a subscription plan. Lastly, developers can leverage the Orders API to access subscription details for efficient order tracking and fulfillment.

  Read the docs to get started.

• Payouts API: New Features (GA) — We’ve added four new payout entry types and launched end-to-end ID, a unique identifier matching payouts between Square and banks that received a transfer. Developers can now retrieve these details to help sellers ensure accounting accuracy and automate reconciliation.

  Read the docs to get started.

• Checkout API: Square Coupons and Loyalty Support (GA) — Developers can now configure Square coupon and Square Loyalty fields on checkout pages created via the Checkout API. They can use these features to help sellers drive repeat purchases, foster customer loyalty, and offer more seamless checkout experiences.

  Read the docs to get started.

Developer Tools

• GraphQL (Beta) — Streamline your application by specifying only the exact data that is needed from an API. This unlocks a better mobile experience for both the developers on the building side and the consumers who interact with your app.

  Read the docs to get started.

• Webhook Subscriptions API (GA) — Let’s developers to manage their webhooks endpoints fully and subscriptions programmatically. Now an application can call APIs to configure webhooks rather than rely on developers to create them manually, which automates manual tasks and makes workflows more efficient.

  Read the docs to get started.

Other Products/Programs

• Machine Learning-Powered App Recommendations — App Recommendations is designed to maximize the visibility of our third-party solutions. By leveraging machine learning, we are able to surface the right solution to the right seller for optimal conversion.

We’re already excited to do this again next year. If you missed out on attending Square Unboxed live, don’t worry. You can still catch our keynote livestream recording on YouTube here.