Square is now offering offline payments for all its hardware devices, including Square Stand and Square Reader, used by sellers in every country around the world. Offline payments, which have been available for other Square devices for the last decade, allows sellers to complete transactions virtually anywhere, including remote locations or where there’s a slow or disrupted connection.
Square first brought “Offline Mode” technology to the original Square Reader for magstripe in 2014. In early 2022, offline functionality expanded to Square Register and Square Terminal, Square’s proprietary end-to-end integrated devices, which provided offline coverage to about half of Square’s global seller population. Now, offline payments are available across the entire Square hardware lineup, expanding to Square Stand and Square Reader for contactless and chip.
Offline payments gives sellers continuity when they choose to conduct business outside of a mobile coverage area, if they face a technical issue, such as a disruption with their internet provider; or during a card network outage. It can also help in the event that Square itself is experiencing an outage.
Sellers can activate offline payments anytime in their Square settings, or in the moment when their Square point of sale detects a connectivity issue, and have 24 hours to reconnect to the internet to upload and process payments. Transaction limits are fully customizable. Offline transactions are processed seamlessly: once a seller is back online, Square automatically uploads and processes all offline sales.
While a banner in the point of sale will notify sellers when they’re taking offline payments, for consumers, the experience is frictionless, hidden, and doesn’t change their purchase experience. Generally, a buyer won’t be aware their seller is offline and can continue to use their tender type of choice, including mobile wallets in the U.S.
“Our recent investments in offline payments are part of our commitment to transparency, accountability, and continuous improvement,” says Cyndy Lobb, Head of Trust Platform at Square. “No technology company can guarantee 100 per cent uptime – though we will always strive for it. What is in our control is how we communicate with and prioritize the needs of our sellers during an incident to minimize impact and preserve trust. Square has made these investments because reliability matters deeply to us, just as it does to the businesses of all sizes who partner with us to power their operations.”
Square continues to invest in platform resilience and reliability, improving both its technology and communications infrastructure to prevent disruptions and improve information sharing, so sellers can get quick answers about the source of a problem.
To enable offline payments, navigate to the settings menu in the Square app.