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Square integration with Kiosk Pro app enables self-service for iPads

The functionality of the Kiosk Pro app moves to a whole new level with the upcoming integration of Square POS payments, which will allow iPads to perform credit card transactions.

The Square interface within the Kiosk Pro app waits for a tip and a signature after processing a payment. Photo courtesy of Kiosk Group Inc.

October 31, 2018 by Elliot Maras — Editor, Kiosk Marketplace & Vending Times

When Kiosk Group Inc. introduced its Kiosk Pro app for iPads eight years ago, thousands of iPads were empowered to enable a wealth of self-service functions. All a user had to do was download the Kiosk Pro app and an iPad could display all sorts of interactive content, eliminating the need to invest in an expensive kiosk software subscription.

"It's a whole new audience," Mike James, Kiosk Group director of product development, told Kiosk Marketplace. "The number of kiosk buyers has probably doubled or tripled."

The app's functionality now moves to a whole new level with the upcoming integration of Square POS payments, which will allow iPads to perform credit card transactions. Kiosk Pro Enterprise, the most advanced of Kiosk Group's four versions, is integrating Square, which will enable users to swipe their credit card through a magstripe reader or make an EMV-compliant chip or contactless payment via NFC and Bluetooth.

"Many people use both of them (swipe and contactless) together," James said.

The integration will introduce the Kiosk Pro app to the customer base of Square, since it makes the Square payment customer facing as opposed to clerk-facing only, James said. He sees restaurants, food trucks and hospital check-in desks as logical uses. Square's backend also includes a host of business management features that could be useful to these types of customers.

Square recognizes opportunity

Square, for its part, sees significant opportunity in Kiosk Pro.

"Kiosk Pro lets anyone with HTML or JavaScript experience turn an iPad into a custom kiosk, which is really powerful," Gabriel Jinich, product manager for the Square developer platform, told Kiosk Marketplace. "By integrating with Square's new Reader SDK, Kiosk Pro gives these developers the ability to add in-person payments to their application, which turns the kiosk into a point-of-sale system."

"This unlocks really interesting new use cases for many types of businesses," Jinich said. "The ability to integrate Square with Kiosk Pro provides a powerful and affordable option to businesses who want to easily deploy self-checkout kiosks, but who may not have the resources to hire an agency to build a custom native application."

A natural for food trucks

Food trucks, many of which are already using Square for accepting and processing payments, will find they can offer customer facing menus using the Kiosk Pro app, James said. "If you have a chain of trucks, you could create your own system a lot cheaper than buying it (the kiosk software) off the shelf where you're paying subscription services."

Jinich agreed.

"One of the interesting trends we've seen is that a self-service kiosk is often an extension of a mobile order-ahead app, but with the app running on a kiosk instead of on the buyer's device," Jinich said. "We see consumers using mobile apps to order ahead from their favorite food truck already, so it's likely we'll see this experience extend to kiosks, either for a single food truck or for a group of food trucks around a specific location.

"With a solution like Kiosk Pro combined with Square Reader SDK, we hope developers will be able to build solutions for use cases such as this one."

A win for both buyers and sellers

"We think self-service kiosks will become increasingly important in various verticals, given that they provide a clear win-win to both buyers and sellers," Jinich said. "Sellers have the opportunity to reduce costs while increasing average order values and, at the same time, can provide a better experience and higher level of service to their customers."

The app supports web-friendly content and media such as HTML pages, videos and PDFs. Content can be managed remotely by uploading files onto a server or syncing with Dropbox. Users can store content, including HTML pages, directly on the iPad for access while offline.

Kiosk Pro's JavaScript API allows content to communicate with the iOS to enable specific functions such as accessing the iPad's cameras or capturing a screenshot. It also allows content to connect with external peripherals such as magnetic stripe card readers, thermal kiosk printers, cash drawers, barcode scanners, QR code scanners, iBeacons, Zapier webhooks, external displays and external speakers.

Since users create their own content to run in Kiosk Pro, it is a flexible solution and can be used in a wide variety of use cases. The Louisiana Art & Science Museum uses Kiosk Pro to enable visitors to choose a video from the iPad and play it on a 60-foot domed theater. Oxo, a kitchen products retailer, uses Kiosk Pro to display product information, photos and videos. Summit Truck Group, a commercial truck and bus dealership, features a touchscreen with a looping image that allows visitors to view and input information.

Square, for its part, has been actively exploring the self-service space through its partnerships with Kiosk Group and others, such as powering the kiosks at Shake Shack's new "Shack of the Future" location in New York City, Jinich said. Last year, Shake Shack opened its first restaurant where customers place all orders at kiosks or via a mobile app. Kiosk Group Inc. designed a custom enclosure for the restaurant that seamlessly incorporates the Square reader for contactless and chip payments.

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