iOS 16 Expands Apple Pay to Third-Party Browsers on iPhone

With the release of iOS 16, Apple ended the exclusivity of Apple Pay on the Safari web browser by extending support to third-party browsers like Chrome, Edge, and Firefox on the iPhone. This article explains how Apple updated its underlying WebKit engine to unlock payment APIs for non-Safari browsers, the technical mechanics behind the expansion, the regulatory pressures that influenced the decision, and how the update streamlines the mobile checkout experience for users and merchants.

The Pre-iOS 16 Limitation

Before iOS 16, Apple Pay on the web was strictly limited to Safari. If an iPhone user set Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox, or Microsoft Edge as their default browser, the "Buy with Apple Pay" button would not appear at online checkouts. Users had to either manually enter their credit card details into the third-party browser or copy the website URL and paste it into Safari to complete the transaction using Apple Pay.

Unlocking the WebKit Engine

The technical expansion of Apple Pay in iOS 16 was made possible through changes to WebKit, Apple’s proprietary browser engine. Due to Apple's App Store guidelines, all third-party web browsers on iOS are required to use WebKit as their core rendering engine rather than their own engines (such as Google’s Blink or Mozilla’s Gecko).

Because third-party browsers were already built on top of WebKit using Apple's WKWebView framework, the infrastructure to support Apple Pay was already present. However, prior to iOS 16, Apple blocked non-Safari browsers from accessing the specific Apple Pay JavaScript APIs and the W3C Payment Request API necessary to trigger the payment sheet.

In iOS 16, Apple removed this software restriction. By granting third-party WKWebView instances permission to communicate with the iPhone's Secure Element—the hardware chip where encrypted payment information is stored—Apple enabled rival browsers to process Apple Pay transactions securely.

How It Works for Users and Merchants

For iPhone users running iOS 16 or later, the checkout process in a third-party browser is now identical to the experience in Safari:

  1. The user taps the Apple Pay button on a supported merchant's website within Chrome, Edge, Firefox, or any other updated browser.
  2. iOS 16 intercepts the payment request from the browser and brings up the native Apple Pay payment sheet.
  3. The user authenticates the transaction using Face ID, Touch ID, or their device passcode.
  4. The Secure Element generates a one-time payment token, and the browser sends it to the merchant to finalize the purchase without exposing the user's actual credit card numbers.

For e-commerce merchants and web developers, this expansion required little to no extra coding. Websites that already utilized standard Apple Pay on the Web APIs automatically displayed the Apple Pay button in third-party browsers once the user updated to iOS 16 and the browser developer updated their app to support the new iOS 16 SDK.

The Catalyst for the Change

Apple's decision to open up Apple Pay to competing browsers was largely driven by global antitrust scrutiny. Regulators in the European Union, the United States, and the United Kingdom had been investigating Apple for anti-competitive behavior, specifically regarding the restrictions placed on third-party browsers and the exclusivity of the iPhone's Near-Field Communication (NFC) chip and payment systems. By opening Apple Pay APIs to all WebKit-based browsers on iOS 16, Apple addressed a major complaint from both competing browser developers and international regulators regarding fair competition on the iOS platform.