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Can I use Square on a laptop or computer instead of a moblie device?

The title of this post has been edited from the original: Can I use Square on my laptop instead of a moblie device?

 

Hi - I am trying to find out the answer to a question below:

Can I use Square on my laptop instead of a mobile device and plug the reader into the microphone? If so, how do I download the app on my laptop? It is not an Apple product.

 

Thanks!

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Admin

Best Answer

Hi everyone!

 

Big update for 2021: You can now use a connected Square Terminal with Virtual Terminal! Once you have Square Terminal, you can use it to turn your Mac or Windows PC into an all-in-one POS solution.

 

For additional information, check out our Square Terminal with Virtual Terminal product update.

 

Adam
Seller Community, Platform

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This reply was created from merging an existing thread: Can you use the readers with a laptop?

 

Help needed to set up card reader to laptop

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Super Seller Alumni

Card readers only work on phones or tablets that can use the Square App.

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I would like to have this option also.  It is easier to look at my computer more than my phone.  Do you think there will be an app for the laptops too sometime soon?  I run on a Mac.

If we type in the sales, then we get charged more by you than if we swipe them right?

 

Thank you

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Alumni

Hey @Photor1 - Unfortunately, there is no news on if or when we might have laptop compatibility at the moment. In the meantime, we recommend using a tablet (Apple or Android) with a larger screen if the issue is visibility. Check out our compatibility list to see which devices work with our app.

Puka - She/They
Seller Community UX Designer
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Admin

Update: You can now accept in-person payments from a computer with Virtual Terminal and the magstripe reader🎉

 

Currently, this is available for Apple computers and Chromebooks. PC compatibility is not supported at this time, but we'll update this thread if that changes in the future. To see video of how to set up Virtual Terminal with the magstripe reader, and to read step-by-step instructions check out this Product Update thread: Swipe In-Person Payments from your Computer.

 

This post was updated in October 2020 by a moderator.

️ Helen
Seller Community Manager

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Business owners have been asking for Square readers to be supported on Windows for over 5 years now, and Square still does not support it. That is very unfortunate. 

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Agreed!  I run a computer sales and service store and it would be much handier to have my computer be able to use the Square chip card reader as that is what I use at my checkout desk.  I have been looking forward to PC compatibility for over five years, as you mentioned, but as yet Square hasn't bothered to accomplish it.

 

Failure to do so in that amount of time tells me that they are not even bothering to look into it.  They are effectively and quite directly ignoring and insulting a large number of their users and even more of their potential users.  That is a bad business decision and makes me realize that it is probably time to consider other options.

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Square Community Moderator

Hi @Trali - thanks for reaching out to us here on the Seller Community.

 

A little context from the Square perspective: We field thousands of feature requests each week here on the Seller Community, and bringing these features to fruition often takes an ample amount of time and effort from our engineers. We want to ensure that our releases are not just surface level products, but the best all-around resources to help you grow your business. What one business may see as a game-changer, the exact opposite or opposing setting or feature is requested from another Seller.

These requests also span an array of different aspects of our products; some are more major, while some are periphery features. Our Product Teams do have a road-map for future additions to our offering, but the nature of our work includes trial, error, and set-backs. So sharing a timeline would be far from accurate and more than likely cause more confusion and angst. 

We understand that it might be difficult waiting for something to be built out, but our engineers are working on various different requests brought up by our sellers, and working with Apple, Google, and our other partners in order to approve these changes and be able to push them out in future updates.

Joe
Community Moderator, Square
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@Joe, I thank you for keeping an eye on the community forum as a Community Moderator and for sending replies to posts from those in the user community.  Having said that, however, I wish to address your reply to me.

 

A little context from the community perspective: We, your users and the ones who pay for your service to exist, have been asking for a single feature for five years.  That is the ability to use your devices on Windows-based machines.  Failure to do so shows a lack of support and respect for your users.  Being someone who has been in the software programming field for decades, I can tell you that if someone at Square were to set his mind to it, he could develop a driver for your chip reader to interface with Windows 10 quite easily, especially if done through the already-available Bluetooth functionality within the chip reader.  It would not require development of a new hardware product or reinvention of the wheel.  Just make a driver for what already exists.

 

As for the POS interface applet, while that would take slightly more time to redesign from a touchscreen smartphone/tablet interface to a mouse-based Windows interface, it would not be overwhelmingly impossible to make happen in fairly short order, certainly much less time than five years.  As I am sure we both know, much of the source code that is used in the current applet would port over to the Windows world with very little (if any) tweaking.

 

I appreciate that Square works with Apple, Google, and "other partners" but that has nothing to do with the issue at hand.  On the major contract side of the house, I work with plenty of others as well (State Farm, Bank of America, Farm Bureau, various state and federal agencies, utility companies, and much more just to toss around some big names as you have) but I do not let something that is requested by such a large community fall by the wayside for years on end.  If there is something for which a large constituency of my user community is clamoring, I address it.  I am but one man but I still take the time to address such issues and make them available to that community.  Square, as we all know, is much more expansive and has a much larger team to support its users.  It could easily find and devote the resources to answer such a simple request if it cared enough to do so.

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I think what would help us be more understanding is if you gave us more transparency. Not just the abstract transparency of "You know other people ask for things too, right?" But the concrete transparency related to our requests.

 

Is this even being actively considered, or is it in some infinite backlog and we shouldn't expect these features to be completed ever?

 

Is there a technical challenge to overcome? For example, is there a reason why it's too difficult to have computers work with the puck over bluetooth, but we can easily do it running an android emulator? Perhaps there is some security concern, as PCs are notoriously the most vulnerable to exploits. Do you need to rewrite large portions of the code to complete the request and it's not obvious to a customer of the extent of the changes required?

Is there a limitation to the onboard hardware that prevents the Terminal from being a first-class device and doing things like working with a puck or pairing with a bluetooth barcode scanner? If this is the case, has there been a consideration of offering a second tier of upgraded Hub to offer that bluetooth pairing functionality?

 

Simply saying "we have other priorities" may be all you know. I empathize with the limitations of a customer rep/community manager. And I don't expect you to have answers to any of my questions here; I only included them for rhetorical examples.

But our frustrations aren't because we think you're doing nothing - only the most unreasonable of us think that. It's because "the only information I can give you is to confirm that your feature request still does not work as of today" is very unfulfilling.

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how and when is there going to be a Square app that can be downloaded onto a Macbook please?  Apple only allows for iphones and ipads?!

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I don't think an app for laptops is in talks for the near future. As always, we'll let you know if anything changes. 

 

@StuffForRuff

Justin
Community Moderator, Square
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Hi Justin,

 

Yes, it is shameful that you guys cannot find a laptop fix after 5 years of requests but you are able to come up with a Square Terminal that lets users use their laptops but only after they spend more money with Square,

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This reply was created from merging an existing thread: How do I take a charge on computer?

 

I have square, having trouble with mobile app. How do I take a charge on computer? Help !!

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This reply was created from merging an existing thread: can i accept a manual payment to a pc

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Alumni

You can't accept manually entered payments on your PC. Sorry about that. But I can bring up your request with our product liason team.

 

In case you're curious, here's our article on manually entered payments: https://squareup.com/help/us/en/article/5176-manually-key-in-card-payments-without-the-square-reader

 

 

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yes, I would prefer to use my desktop computer for receiving manual payments, as well

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This reply was created from merging an existing thread: Link Mobile App to Computer

 

I am using Square on my phone's Square App.  Received an email to enable my COMPUTER to accept payments.  I registered and got my bank account verified and also received a verification code on my phone.  Problem is, the two devices are not linked.  I don't see the transactions that were processed from my mobile device on my computer's Square reports.  How can I link the two?

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Super Seller

It sounds like you created a second account. If you were processing with the square app you were ready to go already. To accept payments on your computer login to the same account you use with your square app on your phone at squareup.com and virtual terminal is an option on the left side on your dashboard. 

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Super Seller Alumni

In your dashboard you can use the Virtual Termminal as a way to charge a card.  Note: the fee is 3.5% + .15.

 

 

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This reply was created from merging an existing thread: How do I set up my windows to use square

 

Can I use my Windows laptop to sell at craft shows?

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