When Apple announced Apple Pay Later alongside iOS 16 in June, the feature was always intended to miss the September 12 release window. It was, however, supposed to come "in a future update" to iOS 16 and that now doesn't look like happening until 2023.
That's according to Bloomberg's Mark Gurman, writing via his weekly Power On newsletter. Gurman says that we might now be waiting until iOS 16.4 arrives in the spring.
Better (pay) later than never
The Apple Pay Later feature is set to allow people to spread Apple Pay purchases across multiple payments to allow them to spread the cost when needed. However, Gurman now believes that Apple is facing "fairly significant technical and engineering challenges in rolling out the service," and that a delay is inevitable. So far, Apple hasn't said anything about Apple Pay Later since that June announcement.
"This leads me to believe that the company isn't completely certain when Apple Pay Later will be ready for launch," Gurman said, adding that "it's possible the feature won't arrive until iOS 16.4 in the spring."
While it's impossible for a product that was never given a release date to be delayed as such, it does appear that Apple has had a rethink on Apple Pay Later at this point. The feature will live in the Wallet app and was thought to be in the cards for a late-2023 release. Now, with iOS 16.1 already in beta testing and adding features like Matter support and Live Activities, that seems less likely than ever.
The Apple Pay Later feature was first announced during iOS 16's unveiling on June 7. Since then the software has gone through months of beta testing and was released on September 12, just a few days before the iPhone 14 lineup went on sale.
