“Neither a borrower nor a lender be,” some guy told his son once in a play. It’s good advice—if someone floats you a few dollars, you should pay them back right away, before you forget. Now PayPal users can settle up without even launching the app, sending payments to friends via Siri in iOS 10.
Version 6.7 of PayPal’s iOS app lets users both send and request money with Siri commands. The app joins Square Cash and Monzo in adding Siri support for sending and receiving payments.
If you aren’t already using PayPal’s iOS app to send money to individuals, it needs a tiny bit of setup. Update the app to version 6.7, launch it, and tap the Send Money button. That’ll prompt you to authorize PayPal to see your contacts list. (If your contacts list appears right away, it’s already authorized—and you can always revoke this permission in the Settings app, under Privacy > Contacts.)
Once PayPal can see your contacts, you don’t need to launch the app to send money to a contact, or request money from someone who owes you. You do have to tell Siri you want to use PayPal, saying, “Send Leah $10 with PayPal,” or “Request $15 from Alex with PayPal.” The first time you use Siri for PayPal, you’ll have to authorize it one more time in the Siri interface, although this only takes a tap if you use Touch ID to authenticate your PayPal account.
Your friends will be matched to their PayPal accounts by email address or phone number, and if there are multiple Leahs or Alexes in your contacts with PayPal accounts, Siri will ask which one you mean. Then you’ll see a card with the proposed transaction details, which you’ll confirm a final time. And don’t worry, this doesn’t work if your iPhone or iPad is locked.
PayPal is rolling this feature out immediately to users in the United States, as well as Australia, Austria, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, China, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Hong Kong, India, Israel, Italy, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Thailand, UK, United Arab Emirates.
