A code commit that I spotted today talks about adding a “Credit Card Scanner” to Chrome. Interestingly enough, the code has been added only to the iOS version of Chrome. When this feature is available, developers can integrate an easy way to scan credit cards to their payment pages.

The commit log does not leave any room for doubt. It clearly states:

Implement credit card scanner screen.
Implement Credit card scanner view & view controller as a subclass of QRScanner.

Furthermore, the bug associated with this change has things in plain English:

What is the expected result?
A credit card scanner screen, similar to the barcode scanner

Now, if you look within the code, you will see more notes explaining this feature:

A possible explanation to the “iOS only” nature of this code change is in this Chrome developer discussion thread:

This feature does not currently exist in Chrome for iOS. We strongly encourage developers to annotate their forms with autocomplete attributes as described in this article. This will ensure that users can autofill the form with their existing data or save newly entered data. But scanning with the camera is only available on Android.

The same thread also confirms that this feature is available on Chrome for Android:

Chrome on Android has credit card scanner in both autofill and PaymentRequest. For autofill, Chrome must detect your input field to be credit card number for this option to show up.

If you are a web developer, this is an interesting piece of news for you already. If you are a Chrome user with an iPhone or an iPad, you will need to wait for a few weeks before the fruits of this development will be available for you to enjoy.

I remember the very first time I used a credit card scanner on my mobile. I was setting up the Uber app for the first time and it took only a second or two for me to add my credit card to the system. I am sure this feature definitely be a big win for developers and users alike, on iOS.

Thoughts? Comments?