iOS 27 Might Finally Add Bill Splitting For Apple Wallet Users

Apple Intelligence will reportedly be the main focus at Apple's annual Worldwide Developers Conference, where the company is& expected to unveil a brand-new Siri experience for iOS 27 and other operating systems. But the ChatGPT-like Siri app isn't the only new feature coming to the iPhone. Following previous reports about the Siri revamp, Bloomberg is now reporting that Apple will introduce a feature that iPhone users may appreciate: a new bill-splitting tool that's built right into the Wallet and Messages apps.

This new feature would offer a seamless, hassle-free way to help users quickly and accurately split restaurant bills, a process that can be complicated even with existing bill-splitting apps. It's unclear whether this will be tied in with Apple Intelligence that Apple may introduce at WWDC, but it definitely sounds like the kind of tool that may use the device's AI to deliver smart capabilities. A single photo of the receipt would be enough for iPhone users to start splitting the bill.

According to Bloomberg, users will be able to assign items from the bill to various people, and the feature may even include tax and tip calculations. The new feature would generate payment requests for all participants, who will be able to settle their bill via Apple Cash. This payment feature for the Messages app, Apple Cash, is already available to U.S. iPhone users.

If a bill-splitting feature is coming to iOS 27, the report doesn't address the potential complications. The first of which being that the new service is seemingly tied to the Apple Cash feature — allowing people to send and receive money via the Messages app on the iPhone — which is only available in the U.S. That would be a problem for international groups of friends sharing the costs of meals at restaurants worldwide. One possible fix would be a wider rollout of Apple Cash.

The second important limitation concerns the operating systems Apple is addressing. The Bloomberg article says bill-splitting will work on the iPhone and Apple Watch, which are both part of Apple's ecosystem. He makes no mention of Android, and Apple Cash is not available on Android. A group of friends that includes both iPhone and Android users would not be able to split the bill using the native iPhone tool coming in iOS 27. A fix for this sort of problem could be to use the bill-splitting feature for the iPhone users in the group and a third-party tool for the Android users.

Finally, it's unclear if Apple's rumored bill-splitting solution would allow users to pay for their share of the meal directly at the point of sale or whether a single person will handle the total payment. In the case of the latter, the tool would be used only to send money requests or payments via Apple Cash.

It's become a familiar WWDC tradition to see Apple add features to its mobile operating systems that are available from third-party apps and services, which is known in the industry as Apple "Sherlocking" apps. If true, this unnamed bill-splitting tool in iOS 27 would be another example of Apple Sherlocking, since several apps already offer bill-splitting tools on the iPhone.Bloomberg names a few of them, including Venmo, Cash App, Splitwise, Tab, and Settle Up. These services would compete directly against Apple's solution and may lose some users, assuming the Apple tool works as advertised from the start.

However, some of the limitations mentioned above would favor third-party apps that can handle bill-splitting, especially the lack of Android support. It seems unlikely the Apple Cash feature will support Google's operating system, in which case Android phone users would still have to rely on a third-party bill-splitting app. Of course, this is all speculation based on the Bloomberg report, but all will be made official when Apple holds its main WWDC 2026 keynote on June 8.