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Square Cash payments can now be sent on an Apple Watch

With the Apple Watch iteration of Square Cash, the whole payment process appears to have been pared down and streamlined for the wearable device.
Written by Natalie Gagliordi, Contributor
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Square has updated its Square Cash iOS app to make the person-to-person payment service compatible with the Apple Watch.

With the Apple Watch iteration of Square Cash, the whole payment process appears to have been pared down and streamlined for the wearable device. Users just select payment recipients and then tap stacks of cash in various increments to send digital dough from the wrist.

First released in 2013, Square Cash began as a competitor to PayPal's Venmo, offering free P2P money transfers via a website or mobile application. Although Venmo has maintained a majority share of the P2P transfer market, Square Cash has grown its annualized payment volume to more than $1 billion.

In March Square made the service available to small businesses via Cash Pro, which is powered by Square's $Cashtag product. With Square Cash for Business, Square hoped to tap into a field of SMBs and non-profits that commonly accept cash and checks for payments or donations.

The Cashtag comes into play as part of the business angle because it allows the user to disassociate payments from any personally identifying information, like an email address or phone number. Square charges businesses a 1.5 percent fee for the service, which is a little more than half the 2.75 percent it charges for payments via its signature dongle or POS devices. Non-business money transfers are free.

While Square has been dipping its toes into an array of payment and small business services, the focus as of late has been on services that speed up the financial process. Last week the San Francisco-based company rolled out a new service called Instant Deposit, which enables businesses to send money from a sale directly to their account within seconds (although the funds are still subject to a bank's availability schedule).

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