Cash App opens up to Apple Pay and Google Pay for the first time
Cash App’s new Pools feature lets users set a group funding goal, name the pool, and invite contributors.
Courtesy: Cash App
Cash App is going on the offensive in peer-to-peer payments.
The Block-owned payments platform on Tuesday unveiled Pools, a new peer-to-peer feature designed to make group payments simple. It’s the company’s first major P2P product launch in nearly two years.
“This is the first time we’re going into out-of-network payments with Pools,” said Owen Jennings, Block’s head of business, referring to the feature’s ability to accept contributions via Apple Pay or Google Pay from people who aren’t on Cash App.
Pools allows users to create and manage a shared balance for group payments — whether splitting a dinner bill or collecting funds for a group trip. Contributions can be made through Cash App or via Apple Pay and Google Pay, which opens up the experience to users outside the app for the first time.
By sharing a Pool link, organizers can collect funds even from friends who don’t use Cash App, making out-of-network participation easier.
The launch comes as Cash App races to regain momentum in a high-stakes rivalry with Venmo, which has been steadily growing under new leadership at PayPal.
PayPal reported its second-quarter results before the market opened Tuesday. Venmo had another knockout quarter, with revenue growing more than 20% year over year — its highest growth rate since 2023.
That followed a similarly strong first quarter where Venmo’s revenue growth doubled the pace of payment volume, driven by rising adoption of debit cards, instant transfers, and online checkout. The gains were fueled by heavier use of Venmo debit cards, instant transfers, and online checkout integrations. PayPal does not break out Venmo revenue.
For Block, the debut of Pools is a strategic reset. The company posted disappointing first-quarter results in May, missing revenue expectations and admitting it had lost focus on growing Cash App’s user base.
“Money is fundamentally social in nature,” Jennings said.
“We want Cash App to be the financial operating system for the next generation… to essentially be the money app where a customer can run their entire financial life,” added Jennings, who was previously Cash App’s chief operating officer.
That includes reinvesting in the peer-to-peer features that first made the app popular, and now aiming to make them more social and accessible — functionality that’s central to Cash App’s broader growth strategy.
Contributors can join a pool and send money through Cash App or external wallets like Apple Pay and Google Pay.
Courtesy: Cash App
Jennings said opening up access to Apple and Google accounts is an opportunity to get more active users and bring people into the ecosystem.
The company sees each non-user who contributes to a pool as a potential convert.
“This product is fundamentally geared at network expansion and improving the virality of our peer-to-peer products,” he added. “It’s the foundation of Cash App — it’s how Cash App started, but it’s also the growth engine that fuels everything else.”
Internally, the rollout represents a cultural shift at Block. The feature went from idea to launch in just a few months, driven by what Jennings described as “high velocity, high quality” development powered in part by internal AI tools like the company’s open-source assistant, Goose.
“The pace of development on this and our ability to get it in customers’ hands feels really different this year,” Jennings said. “Especially in the past three or four months, relative to how things felt about a year ago.”
He added that the shift isn’t unique to Block.
“You’ll probably broadly see that in the industry, where the pace of development is going to pick up as the marginal cost of a great line of code continues to fall. And this is just a great example of how we were able to move really fast.”
When a pool reaches its target, organizers can close it and transfer the collected funds directly into their Cash App balance.
Courtesy: Cash App
The launch also reflects CEO Jack Dorsey’s call to return Cash App to its core growth engine. On the company’s first-quarter earnings call, Dorsey acknowledged the platform’s recent underperformance
“I just don’t think we were focused enough and had enough attention on the network and the network density, and that is our foundation,” he said.
While Cash App continues to expand its banking and lending products — including its FDIC-approved Borrow program — Dorsey emphasized that the app’s success still hinges on peer-to-peer engagement.
“We of course want to deepen engagement with our customers through banking services and Borrow,” he said. “But at the same time, we need to make sure that we continuously grow our network, and that starts with peer-to-peer.”
Pools is designed to drive organic user growth — not direct revenue.
“We’re not looking at this from a profit maximization perspective,” Jennings said. “This is very geared at network expansion and getting back to a place where actives are growing at a healthy clip.”
The tool comes with built-in progress tracking, seamless integration with Cash App’s banking tools, and the ability for organizers to set a target amount and share a link to collect contributions.
Pools is currently available to a limited set of Cash App users, with a broader rollout expected in the coming months. For Block, it’s the start of what Jennings described as a new chapter — one focused on making money feel “more multiplayer.”
WATCH: Mastercard stock jumps as it links Fiserv’s new stablecoin to its global payments network
Environment
Tesla’s Robotaxis are officially powered by human drivers as it launches ride-hailing in Bay Area
Tesla’s ‘Robotaxi’ is now blatantly operated by human drivers as the automaker launches a ride-hailing service in the Bay Area through its ‘Robotaxi’ app.
When Tesla launched its ‘Robotaxi’ service in Austin, we noted how it was just for optics and the fact that it still uses “safety monitor” in the front passenger seats makes it a “supervised” system and therefore, not a level 4 autonomous driving system.
It’s basically Tesla’s consumer ‘Supervised Full Self-Driving’ (FSD), but with the supervisor moved from the driver’s seat to the front passenger seat.
The reason Tesla was able to do that is that Texas law allows it, and it looks better for them than having a driver in the driver’s seat. Instead, the “safety monitor” has access to a kill switch that can stop the car, something Tesla is not publicizing.
Over the last few weeks, Tesla has been teasing the expansion of its Robotaxi in California despite not having secured any of the permits required for an automated driving system in the state.
Now, Tesla has expanded its service area in the “Robotaxi” app to the Bay Area, but even though it’s in the “Robotaxi” app, it is only calling it a “ride-hailing service” because there’s a driver in the driver’s seat of each car:
Tesla fans have applauded the automaker for covering such a large part of the Bay Area, bigger than Waymo’s coverage of the region, but to be clear, Tesla’s service right now is not comparable to Waymo’s in the Bay Area. It’s only equivalent to Uber.
In fact, it’s the exact same service as an Uber driver who owns a Tesla with Supervised FSD in the Bay Area.
Politico reported that Tesla still hasn’t applied for any of the required permits to operate autonomous vehicles in California, despite CEO Elon Musk claiming just last week that Tesla was waiting for regulators.
Documents from the California DMV and Public Utilities Commission revealed that the state agencies were concerned by comments from Tesla employees regarding the automaker’s imminent launch of its Robotaxi service in the state, despite not having obtained any authorization.
Tesla’s regulatory counsel quickly intervened to explain to the state that there’s no such plan and Tesla only plans to launch a ride-hailing service for “employees, friends and family, and select members of the public”, which is apparently what was launched today.
The automaker is not looking for “vehicle operators” in 9 other US cities to launch the same ride-hailing service, which it operates under its ‘Robotaxi’ app.
Electrek’s Take
This is so blatantly misleading. Tesla is trying to make the public think it is a leader in autonomous driving by launching its ‘Robotaxi’ service in cities while being powered by human drivers.
It’s FSD in consumer vehicles. That’s all it is, and we know that it gets about 500 miles between critical disengagement, based on the best crowdsourced data.
By not applying for an autonomous driving permit, Tesla is making sure that it doesn’t have to report any data to the state.
Why doesn’t Tesla want to do that? The only thing that makes sense is that it is not ready for it, and the data wouldn’t look good.
This is all for show because Waymo is starting to rapidly expand and making Elon Musk look bad after he has been claiming for years that Tesla is the leader in autonomous driving with no close second.
FTC: We use income earning auto affiliate links. More.
Hyundai said the new trade agreement was a “historic achievement” between the US and South Korea. Although Hyundai Motor, including Kia and Genesis, is getting some relief with lower US tariffs, it’s still expected to face billions in extra costs this year.
Hyundai and Kia score US tariff relief
After threatening tariffs as high as 25% on imported vehicles from South Korea, President Donald Trump said on Wednesday that the US will instead enact a 15% tariff.
Hyundai’s executive chairman, Chung Euisun, who was in Washington for the final negotiations, called the agreement a “historic win.” The tariff rate is the same 15% on imports from Japan, putting Hyundai and Kia on a level playing field.
Although it’s better than 25%, the added tariffs are expected to cost Hyundai an additional $5 billion this year. The lower rate will still save Hyundai over $3 billion in costs, according to Bloomberg Intelligence analyst Joanna Chen.
Even before the $7,500 IRA tax credit for electric vehicles and other Biden-era policies were enacted, Hyundai was planning to grow its market share in the US, its largest market.
The Korean auto giant invested $7.6 billion to build its new EV manufacturing plant in Georgia, directly creating 8,500 jobs.
Hyundai and SK On’s $5 billion battery plant in the state will employ an additional 3,500 workers. It’s the largest economic project in state history.
According to a study by the Center for Automotive Research, Hyundai’s new EV plant will help create over 58,200 new jobs in the area.
Earlier this year, Hyundai announced a record $21 billion investment to expand production in the US over the next three years. The investment will directly create around 14,000 jobs while ramping up the output of Hyundai, Kia, and Genesis vehicles in the US. By 2028, Hyundai expects to generate over 100,000 direct and indirect jobs in the US.
Hyundai Motor, including Kia and Genesis, saw its market share in the US rise to about 11% in the first half of 2025, up from 10.5% the previous year.
Since Hyundai builds the new IONIQ 5 and IONIQ 9, its first three-row SUV in Georgia, both still qualify for the $7,500 tax credit. However, that’s set to expire at the end of September.
After cutting lease prices again, the 2025 Hyundai IONIQ 5 is now one of the most affordable EVs on the market, starting at just $179 per month.
The 2026 IONIQ 9 (check out our review of it) is available with leases starting at just $419 per month. To ease the transition, Hyundai is including a complimentary ChargePoint L2 home charger with the purchase or lease of any new 2025 IONIQ 5 or 2026 IONIQ 9.
Looking to test one out for yourself? You can use the links below to find 2025 Hyundai IONIQ 5 and 2026 IONIQ 9 models in your area.
FTC: We use income earning auto affiliate links. More.
After kicking off production last month, Zero Motorcycles has now officially begun deliveries of its highly anticipated X Line models. The first wave of customers is taking delivery of their new Zero XE and Zero XB electric motorcycles, marking a major milestone for the company’s push into more affordable off-road and adventure EVs.
“The delivery of the first X Line bikes is a major milestone for Zero and for the future of off-road EV performance,” said Zero CEO Sam Paschel. “It’s the start of a new chapter in how adventure riding is experienced. With the XB and XE, we’re making electric motorcycles more accessible and approachable for riders everywhere.”
Zero first unveiled the X Line late last year, announcing the two-bike lineup aimed at adventure and trail riders. The XE and XB models were designed to be affordable new platforms, not just budget versions of Zero’s existing on-road bikes.
Both bikes are designed to be street-legal in Europe, but are intended only for off-road riding in the US.
The two models were developed alongside Zero’s Chinese partner Zongshen to offer an approachable gateway to electric two-wheeled adventure, with lightweight frames, swappable battery packs, and plenty of power for getting off the beaten path. They’re also the most affordable models Zero has ever produced: the smaller Zero XB starts at just $4,395 in the U.S., while the larger, more powerful Zero XE comes in at $6,495.
At those price points, the X Line represents a big shift for Zero, which has historically focused on premium electric motorcycles priced well into five-figure territory.
Deliveries began this week and will continue to roll out over the coming months. Buyers who place new reservations starting today can expect deliveries to begin in Fall 2025, according to the company.
The X Line is a strategic move for Zero as it looks to expand its rider base beyond urban commuters and high-end sport bike enthusiasts. With more riders, especially younger and off-road focused customers, showing interest in electric motorcycles, the XE and XB could be just the right mix of capability and price to bring new blood into the EV moto world.
Electrek’s Take
This is a big moment for Zero. After more than a decade building high-performance electric motorcycles for the street, the company is finally breaking into the more affordable end of the market, and doing it with purpose-built off-road machines, not watered-down street bikes.
The fact that the XB starts at under $4,500 is kind of wild, especially considering Zero’s bikes have historically hovered around the $15K mark. Sure, these aren’t full-size dual-sport monsters, but they’re not toys either. And yes, there are questions about how much of these bikes are actually Zero, and how much are basically Sur Rons built by Zongshen. But with decent range, real off-road chops, and swappable batteries, if these bikes can deliver a quality ride then it might not really matter. The new models have the potential to carve out a whole new corner of the market for Zero, one that’s long been dominated by DIY conversions or budget Asian imports.
If Zero can ramp up deliveries smoothly and keep the quality high, the X Line might be the company’s most important launch yet. And judging by the response so far, there’s real demand for affordable, capable electric trail bikes. Now they just need to homologate them for the US market.
FTC: We use income earning auto affiliate links. More.
-
Sports3 years ago‘Storybook stuff’: Inside the night Bryce Harper sent the Phillies to the World Series
-
Sports1 year agoStory injured on diving stop, exits Red Sox game
-
Sports2 years agoGame 1 of WS least-watched in recorded history
-
Sports2 years agoMLB Rank 2023: Ranking baseball’s top 100 players
-
Sports4 years ago
Team Europe easily wins 4th straight Laver Cup
-
Sports2 years agoButton battles heat exhaustion in NASCAR debut
-
Environment2 years agoJapan and South Korea have a lot at stake in a free and open South China Sea
-
Environment2 years agoGame-changing Lectric XPedition launched as affordable electric cargo bike