Payments company Block may be looking to poach users from rivals Apple Pay and Google Pay with a fledgling group payments feature.
Getting more people on Cash App "is one of the main goals" of the new payment option, said Tony DeSanctis, senior director of payments for the consulting firm Cornerstone Advisors.
As of this month, the new Cash App tool lets a select group of users pool money for larger purchases. Block plans to roll out the feature to all users in the coming months, the company said in a news release Tuesday. The feature will let users contribute money from their Cash App accounts or rival digital wallets from Apple and Google.
Oakland, California-based Block is likely making a play for Apple and Google customers by allowing that interoperability, KBW analyst Vasu Govil said in an interview.
"If an Apple Pay user sees this functionality being used with Cash App and likes what they see, they might decide they want to try Cash App,” she said. Although Govil cautioned that any migration to Cash App from digital wallets will be gradual.
Just because an Apple Pay or Google Pay customers starts using Cash App, doesn’t mean they will stop using their digital wallet, stressed Aaron Press, research director for the analytics firm IDC Global.
“It's exceptionally common to have both a point-of-sale wallet, and to have a peer-to-peer app,” he said in an interview.
DeSanctis said the ultimate impact of adding group payments to Cash App remains to be seen, even if the new feature is a clear attempt to grow the platform
"I'm not sure if it will drive Cash App adoption or just more usage by existing users," he said. "It will be interesting to see."
A spokesperson for Apple did not respond to a request for comment.
A Block spokesperson declined to say how many users were initially given access to the feature or who they were. The spokesperson also declined to provide a more precise timeline.
The feature lets Cash App users send requests to co-workers, friends and family for large expenditures such as a down payment for a vacation or a shared wedding gift.
"In addition to shared expenses and vacations I could see this for things like a fantasy football league or other competition-based offering," DeSanctis said.
The pooling function also lets a single Cash App user plan and track contributions to a payment pool, according to the release.
Analysts see an additional reasons for adding the group payment tool.
"This is a way for them to stay competitive with PayPal," said McKayla Wooldridge, a fintech analyst for the consulting firm S&P Global.
That platforms already has a feature that lets multiple users pool their money for a single payment, but Cash App is the first to allow interoperability with other payment apps, Govil said. “This is about product parity and making sure current customers are happy,” she said.
Block released the feature two months after Cash App reported disappointing profit growth.
Gross profit for Cash App grew 10% in the first quarter compared to the same quarter in 2024. By contrast, gross profit for the app nearly doubled for the first quarter of 2024, relative to the year-earlier period.
The pooling feature could be a way to get more customers onto the app, but it will take some time before users of competing payment services see the value in Cash App, Govil said. “I don't think this will be a meaningful contributor to profit growth” in the short-term, she said.
The launch is part of an effort to improve customers’ financial journey, a Google spokesperson said in an email. Google Pay already supports the Cash App card for mobile payments, the spokesperson noted.
