One of the updates in the Wallet app this year is to make adding your cards to Apple Pay quicker and easier than before. I’m sure you’ve all had the experience of holding up the camera and trying to align it to the card, only for it to misread some of the numbers, and then you have to enter them manually anyway afterwards. Well, now there’s a new way that uses NFC (near-field communication), which is how contactless payment works with your cards.

All I’m going to do is press the plus button at the top of Wallet to add a new card, and then I’m going to choose debit or credit card. When that screen comes up, as long as your card has got the contactless symbol – that’s the one that looks a little bit like Wi-Fi but on its side – it will work in this new secure mode, which is just as secure as it was before using Apple Wallet. All you have to do is hold your phone onto your card, that’s literally it, and iOS and the Wallet app will get those details instantly. This quick and simple action replaces using the camera. Then, Wallet will continue as normal: it will contact the card issuer, get permission to use the card in Apple Pay, and then when it’s added, it will guide you through the verification steps as normal. But this saves that whole effort of having to hold the phone up and trying to get the camera to work, which is a big improvement in my book.

There are other big improvements to Wallet as well, and if you want to learn more about them, please do check out my channel down below where there are loads of iOS 18 videos. Or if you’re interested, I’ve put together an eBook with my 100 quick tips for iOS 18 that will guide you through all of the new things that your phone can do now you’ve updated. That’s in the description below, so please do check that out, subscribe to the channel, and I’ll see you next time for more iPhone QuickTips.