PayPay Payment Widget Now Available on the iPhone Lock Screen!

With the iOS 16 update, the PayPay payment screen widget can now be set on the iPhone lock screen. We asked Suin (Chiahsun Tung), the iOS Team Tech Lead, who proposed and developed this convenient widget that allows you to jump directly to the PayPay payment screen from your iPhone lock screen, about the story behind the launch.

The Story Behind the Launch

Tell us what how it happened

Suin：
With the announcement at WWDC 2022 on June 7, I learned that iOS 16 will allow us to change the background, style, and font of the lock screen, similar to the Apple Watch home screen. There also was going to be the possibility to develop app widgets for the lock screen.

So, I came up with the idea to put a PayPay icon there so users can jump to the payment screen.

Suin：
I thought it would be very convenient to have the app widget on the lock screen, since you can directly access the PayPay payment screen.The current three steps of 1. lock screen ➾ 2. PayPay app ➾ 3. payment screen will be shortened to one tap, which is easily the quickest path.

Did you come up with the idea right away?

Suin：
After seeing Apple’s announcement, I immediately compiled a document of the new features of iOS 16, shared it with my team, proposed a widget idea, and made a demo.

How did you get from there to making a proposal to Nakayama-san?

Suin：
When I shared this information with the team, my boss, Sakui-san, said, “Let’s go to Nakayama-san and share it as soon as possible”. Sakui-san has regular meetings with Nakayama-san, but this was the first time for me, so I was extremely grateful to Sakui-san for giving me the chance to share and propose the idea directly to Nakayama-san.

Environment Where Engineers Make Proposals to the President

Sync up PayPay development with the latest Apple features

Suin：
The fact that we engineers could appeal directly to Nakayama-san is one of the great things about being a part of PayPay, but what’s even more amazing is that Nakayama-san immediately said “Let’s do it!” on the spot. We decided to sync up the latest Apple features with the PayPay app development. The appeal of PayPay lies in the speed and flexibility with which it introduces the latest features, the speed with which the president himself makes decisions, and of course, the openness within the company that allows us overseas engineers to directly make proposals.

Create a PRD and immediately move to project implementation.

Suin：
From there, I quickly drew up a PRD and it became a project.

Environment with many services that are the brainchild of our members

Suin：
In fact, the widget support for iOS 14, PayPay for Apple Watch, and other projects and developments have all been the creation of app development team members. Engineers here have the mindset to adopt and implement cutting-edge technologies on their own. Such initiatives are then enthusiastically accepted for implementation in the production environment and a project starts rolling. Being an engineer in a place like this, where you can always follow the latest developments, is incredibly stimulating.

About Suin (Chiahsun Tung)

*The recruitment status is current at the time of the interview.

Special thanks to：Suin / Editor & Translation: Az (PayPay Inside-Out Editorial Team) / Translation Editor:Justin
*Employees’ affiliations are as of the time of the interview.