Beginning with iOS 18.1, Apple will permit developers to enable in-app NFC transactions via the Secure Element. The update also includes the ability to designate a default contactless payment app that appears when you double-click the side button on your iPhone. Apple used to only permit Apple Pay to show up when you double-clicked that button.

Developers can now offer contactless in-app purchases for a wide range of apps, including as “car keys, closed-loop transit, corporate badges, student IDs, home keys, hotel keys, merchant loyalty and rewards cards, and event tickets,” in addition to in-store payments. Up until now, third-party apps’ use of NFC was restricted to tag reading.

According to Apple’s news release, support for government IDs is planned for “the future.”

Developers in Australia, Brazil, Canada, Japan, New Zealand, the UK, and the US will have access to the necessary APIs to create these apps in an upcoming iOS 18.1 developer beta, with “additional locations to follow,” according to Apple. Developers must, however, “enter into a commercial agreement with Apple, request the NFC and SE entitlement, and pay the associated fees” in order to use Apple’s APIs.

The change comes in response to an antitrust inquiry by the European Commission and Apple’s promise to allow third-party providers to accept iPhone NFC payments. Last month, the European Commission declared that Apple’s pledges were now enforceable.