Venmo is the new frontier in both micropayments between friends and passive-aggressive bullying of Trump administration employees. But Venmo may have a large, fruit-shaped target on its back because Apple just declared war.
It was a subtle declaration, but one nonetheless. Apple, which is slowly realizing that nobody is ever going to use Apple Pay (or any other mobile service) to replace their wallet, has shifted direction slightly. Apple Pay will soon be incorporated into Messages on the iPhone, meaning that paying your friend back for lunch is as simple as punching in a dollar amount and pressing send.
While information is thin on the ground about this feature at the moment, Venmo is probably hearing the bell toll. Apple is likely to push this feature hard, and most people will feel more secure going through the account they’ve already set up for iTunes over punching a new credit card into Venmo. Plus, more people have iTunes accounts than Venmo, so consolidating everything into one place won’t just make things easier, but will end the annoying game of “which cash-sending app do you use?” every time you have to pay a friend for a couple of drinks.
You might want to keep an eye on payment apps when iOS11 and Apple Pay’s new features drop this fall; they’re unlikely to be very happy with the news.