# Tap to phone (SoftPOS)

https://www.uniwebpay.com/glossary/tap-to-phone/

*Last updated: 2026-08-03*

Accepting a contactless card or wallet directly on a standard phone, using its NFC hardware, with no separate terminal. It removes the device cost and suits low-volume or occasional acceptance; what it does not remove is the merchant account behind it, and it inherits the phone's battery and connectivity rather than a terminal's.

## Why it matters to a merchant

Genuinely useful for a specific shape of business — occasional acceptance, a second position at a busy counter, a market weekend — and routinely oversold as a replacement for a terminal. The trade is that it inherits a phone's battery, a phone's connectivity and a phone's tendency to be needed for something else, which is the whole reason dedicated terminals still exist.

## Related terms

*At the counter*

- [Card present / card not present](https://www.uniwebpay.com/glossary/card-present/)
- [EMV](https://www.uniwebpay.com/glossary/emv/)
- [Contactless](https://www.uniwebpay.com/glossary/contactless/)
- [Merchant-presented QR / consumer-presented QR](https://www.uniwebpay.com/glossary/merchant-presented-qr/)
- [Smart terminal](https://www.uniwebpay.com/glossary/smart-terminal/)
- [MCC (merchant category code)](https://www.uniwebpay.com/glossary/mcc/)
- [Magnetic stripe](https://www.uniwebpay.com/glossary/magnetic-stripe/)
- [Consumer-presented QR](https://www.uniwebpay.com/glossary/consumer-presented-qr/)
- [MID (merchant ID)](https://www.uniwebpay.com/glossary/mid/)
- [CVM (cardholder verification method)](https://www.uniwebpay.com/glossary/cvm/)
- [Tip adjust](https://www.uniwebpay.com/glossary/tip-adjust/)

- [All 74 terms](https://www.uniwebpay.com/glossary/)

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