It has been a long wait for Apple iPhone users, but it seems that Amazon is finally rolling out the Unified Payments Interface (UPI) option for the Apple iOS platform as well. This option had been rolled out for Android devices early last year, but that feature has remained unavailable on the iOS platform till now. A recent update to the Amazon app has introduced a new change, which now allows users to set up the UPI payment option via the iPhone app, something that was completely unavailable thus far.
UPDATE: Amazon has confirmed that they are indeed rolling out UPI for Amazon Pay for Apple iPhone users in India. "We continuously look for ways to make customers’ lives easier. Towards this, we have extended Amazon Pay UPI to iOS devices," says Mahendra Nerurkar, Head of Amazon Pay, in a statement shared with News18.
However, if you look closely in the Amazon Shopping app on your iPhone, and chances are you are using the one that is available for multiple countries where Amazon has an online store, attempt to set up the Amazon Pay UPI and you will get a message that redirects you to the Apple App Store to download what Amazon calls the Amazon India app. Till now, we were using the Amazon Shopping app that is available in many countries, including India. The two apps also have different icons too. The new app has the dual colour background of white and blue where the Amazon logo at the top sits with a white background while there is a white shopping cart with a blue background below it. The global app, for instance, has a completely white background on the icon with the Amazon logo and a partially visible shopping cart in blue below it.
Incidentally, Amazon India’s own help and support documentation suggests that “Currently, this feature is supported on devices running Android operating system. Please make sure you have installed the latest version of Amazon.in app,” which leads us to believe that the final rollout of UPI for iOS and the Apple iPhones could still be some days away.
The two apps also have separate listings on the Apple App Store. One is called “Amazon – Shopping made easy” while the second is listed as “Amazon India Online Shopping”. Both apps are registered by AMZN Mobile LLC. The new Amazon India Online Shopping app doesn’t have a publishing date on the App Store, but a glance through the user reviews indicate that all reviews are from the past few days.
It all started when I attempted to set up the Amazon Pay UPI on the global version of the Amazon Shopping app which I was using over the past few years for shopping on Amazon.in website. Till now, whenever I have attempted this, the app always generated a message that suggested that iOS as a platform didn’t support this mode of payment and fund transfer. After signing into the Amazon India Online Shopping app, I went into the Amazon Pay settings and tapped on the ‘set up UPI’ option. The standard method of verifying the SIM card and mobile number was completed, and the app listed the bank accounts registered with the mobile number. I selected the one I use, and the app detected that I had already set a UPI PIN for this and proceeded to set up the XXX@YPL UPI account. Amazon has partnered with Axis Bank for the UPI payments option for the iOS app as well.
The UPI payments option is now available as one of the payments options when I check out to complete the purchase of whatever is there in the shopping cart. The Amazon Pay UPI in the Amazon India Online Shopping app offer a full gamut of options—make payments for the shopping done on Amazon India, scan a QR code, send money and request money.
It is good to see the UPI payments option now available for Amazon users who rock the Apple iPhone. UPI as a method allows you to immediately make payments using your bank account, and also receive payments directly into your bank account. UPI has been developed by National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) and is regulated by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI). The UPI platform registered as many as 1.3 billion transactions in December, according to the latest NPCI data. This is a 111% increase over the same period in the year before and also continued the steady increase as also seen the preceding months. Amazon is competing with Paytm, PhonePe and Google Pay in India, to name a few, and these popular mobile payment platforms also rely heavily on UPI as a method for payments.
We have reached out to Amazon for a clarification on whether this is the final rollout of the UPI feature for iPhones. We will update this story as soon as we hear back.
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