Square Previews App Integration in API Beta
Square freshly released their app for Android just last week, enabling any smartphone as a mobile point-of-sale system. Now developers can begin to test out direct integration of Square’s service into their apps with a public preview that was released today. Currently at version 0.9, there are still some bugs to be worked out before the API set exits beta, but the idea of integrating direct credit card payments through Square into existing or new applications opens up some real possibilities for innovation.
A cool example described on the site hosting the API files is integrating Square payments into a taxi cab fare app, which would track distance travelled via GPS and then calculate a passengers fare. The cab driver could then accept payment via plastic rather than paper money.
Along with PayPal’s new Mobile Payments Library, the range of ways developers can create store-fronts (and the ways in which smartphone users can spend money) on mobile apps is fast increasing. Good thing there are also apps like Mint to keep our wallets in check.
[Thanks to Anthony for the heads up!]