How should I design an iPad app using Apple's HIG?

Apple's HIG recommends using sidebars instead of bottom tab bars on iPadOS, supporting split views for multitasking, and adding pointer interactions. Apple HIG Skills provides instant, AI-ready guidance on all iPadOS conventions.

What are Apple's guidelines for adding Apple Pay?

Apple's HIG specifies exact payment button placement, flow design, error states, and UX patterns required for App Store approval. Apple HIG Skills gives your AI agent access to the full Apple Pay design guidelines.

How do I make my Apple app accessible?

Apple's HIG requires support for VoiceOver, Dynamic Type, sufficient color contrast ratios, and motor accessibility features like Switch Control. Apple HIG Skills covers all accessibility foundations and requirements.

How do I design for visionOS and Apple Vision Pro?

Apple's HIG for visionOS covers ornaments, volumes, immersive spaces, eye tracking, and spatial interaction patterns. Apple HIG Skills includes dedicated visionOS platform guidance and spatial layout references.

What are Apple's dark mode design guidelines?

Apple's HIG specifies using system semantic colors, material backgrounds, elevated surfaces, and vibrancy for dark mode. Apps should test in both modes and avoid hard-coded color values. Apple HIG Skills covers the full dark mode specification.

How should I design notifications for iOS apps?

Apple's HIG covers notification grouping, Live Activities, action buttons, and respecting user attention. Apple HIG Skills provides guidelines for the full notification system including widgets and complications.

Source: Apple Inc. Canonical content at https://developer.apple.com/design/human-interface-guidelines/tap-to-pay-on-iphone. This file is a structured index of that content, snapshot 2025-02-02. Apple HIG text and imagery are © Apple Inc.; this repository provides organization and cross-referencing for AI agent consumption only.

Tap to Pay on iPhone

Enabling Tap to Pay on iPhone

Help merchants accept Tap to Pay on iPhone terms and conditions before they begin interacting with their customers.

Present Tap to Pay on iPhone terms and conditions only to an administrative user.

If necessary, help merchants make sure their device is up to date.

Educating merchants

Provide a tutorial that describes the supported payment types and shows how to use Tap to Pay on iPhone to accept each type.

Including it in a Learn More option in your in-app messaging
Automatically presenting it after merchants accept the Tap to Pay on iPhone terms and conditions
Automatically presenting it to new users of your app
Making it easy to find in a consistent place like your app’s help content or settings area
Launch a checkout flow for each type of payment
Help a customer position their contactless card or digital wallet on the merchant’s device for payment
Handle PIN entry for a card, including accessibility mode

Checking out

Offer payment options in addition to Tap to Pay on iPhone, as necessary
Respond quickly if a merchant initiates checkout before enabling Tap to Pay on iPhone
Help merchants perform checkout even if device configuration is still in progress
Present pre-payment actions that affect the final total before checkout completes

Provide Tap to Pay on iPhone as a checkout option whether the feature is enabled or not.

Avoid making merchants wait to use Tap to Pay on iPhone.

Make sure the Tap to Pay on iPhone checkout option is available even if configuration is continuing in the background.

If your app supports multiple payment-acceptance methods, make the Tap to Pay on iPhone button easy to find.

Make it easy for merchants to switch between Tap to Pay on iPhone and the hardware accessories you support.

Design your Tap to Pay on iPhone button to match the other buttons in your app.

Determine the final amount that customers need to pay before merchants initiate the Tap to Pay on iPhone experience.

If you support pre-payment options in your checkout flow, display them before the Tap to Pay on iPhone screen.

Displaying results

Start processing a transaction as soon as possible.

Display a progress indicator while payment is authorizing before you show your transaction result screen.

Clearly display the result of a transaction, whether it’s declined or successful.

Help merchants complete the checkout flow when a payment can’t complete with Tap to Pay on iPhone.

Present a new screen or reuse your checkout screen, letting merchants accept an alternate form of payment, like cash
Support checkout with a different method, like external hardware or a payment link
Relaunch Tap to Pay on iPhone, if a customer has another card they want to try
Some regions require Strong Customer Authentication (SCA) support, which means that although the payment card might not require a card PIN during a tap, the bank that issues the card can request a PIN after receiving the transaction processing request. In this scenario, your app may need to display the PIN entry screen instead of the transaction result.
In some regions your app may need to meet additional requirements to address the limitations of some cards, such as those in Offline PIN markets. Some PSPs support additional PIN fallback functionality to collect partial data from a tap, letting merchants continue the payment with another method such as a payment link.

If the system returns an error that the merchant must address, display a clear description of the problem and recommend an appropriate resolution.

Make it easy for merchants to get help with issues they can’t resolve.

Tap to Pay on iPhone

Tap to Pay on iPhone

Enabling Tap to Pay on iPhone

Educating merchants

Checking out

Displaying results

Additional interactions

Platform considerations

Resources

Developer documentation

Change log

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