Does Apple Pay work in Instagram's browser?

Sometimes, and you can't count on it. When a buyer taps your shop link in Instagram, the page opens in Instagram's own browser. Apple lets Apple Pay run in an app's browser only when the app hasn't added its own scripts to the page, and the cards saved in the buyer's own browser and their sign-in to your store don't carry over. In Safari, with a card in Wallet, Apple Pay shows wherever the checkout offers it.

The same goes for TikTok, Facebook, X and the other apps that open links inside themselves. Below: the step where checkout breaks, what a buyer can do, what you as a seller can change, and how to measure it honestly.

where checkout breaks inside an app's browser

The product page loads. Add to cart works. The trouble starts at the steps that depend on who the buyer is:

1. Sign-in. The app's browser has its own cookies, so the buyer is signed out of your store even if they're signed in in Safari or Chrome. Why that happens.
2. The express buttons. Apple Pay and Google Pay depend on the browser, and an app's browser may not offer them (details below).
3. The card form. Cards saved in Safari or Chrome don't fill in (unless the app uses a Chrome Custom Tab on Android), so it's a long card number, a date and a code typed by hand.
4. Verification. On iPhone, an app's own web view can only use passkeys for the app's own sites (Apple Developer: Supporting passkeys), so a passkey for your store or for Shop Pay isn't offered.

Each of those steps is a place where a buyer who wanted the product can give up. To them it feels like your checkout is broken.

For creators, that's where most shoppers start. By linkboo's own count, about 54% of the roughly 5.3 million visits to linkboo pages in the 28 days to 25 October 2026 opened inside the built-in browser of Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, Threads or Snapchat (bots left out).

does Apple Pay work in Instagram's browser?

Apple's rules decide it, and they've changed over time:

• iOS 13 let pages in an app's web view "accept Apple Pay", with a condition: "Apple Pay cannot be used alongside of script injection APIs", and "If these APIs are invoked before a webpage uses Apple Pay, Apple Pay will be disabled" (WebKit: New WebKit Features in Safari 13). In plain words: if the app runs its own code on the page, the Apple Pay button can't work there.
• iOS 16, Apple says, enabled Apple Pay in the web view that browsers on iPhone are built from, "enabling non‑Safari browsers on iOS and iPadOS to support Apple Pay directly on device" (Apple Pay: Apple Pay in Third-Party Browsers). So other browsers on an iPhone can show Apple Pay too.
• Shopify's help still lists Safari as the requirement for its own Apple Pay button: "your customers must use Safari on one of the devices that are compatible with Apple Pay", with a card added to Apple Wallet (Shopify Help Center: Apple Pay, checked 2026-10-26).

So an app's built-in browser can show Apple Pay, unless the app runs its own code on the page. Nobody outside the app can see whether it does, and that can change with an app update. If your Apple Pay button shows in Safari and not in Instagram, your store settings are fine: the browser is different. For Shopify stores in particular, see Shopify's Apple Pay button missing in Instagram's browser.

Google Pay and saved cards on Android

• Google Pay in an app's own web view is off unless the app turns it on. Google's guide for app makers says "by default the Payment Request API will be disabled for WebView". The app has to change its own code, and the buyer needs recent versions of Android WebView and Google Play services (Google Pay API: Using Android WebView).
• Apps that use a Chrome Custom Tab are different. There, Google says, the buyer's "browsing session, saved passwords, payment methods, and addresses will all show up" (Chrome for Developers: Custom Tabs). Which kind of browser an app uses is the app's choice, and it can change between versions.

what Instagram's browser offers instead: Meta's autofill

Instagram and Facebook have a checkout helper of their own. Meta's help says its autofill stores contact and payment details to fill in forms in Facebook, Instagram and Meta's other apps, and that a card saved to an ad account may be offered. Meta may also use the buyer's contact details to check whether they have an account with Shopify, Stripe, PayPal or Click to Pay, and offer faster ways to check out (Meta Help Center: How we use autofill). Buyers can turn autofill off in the Facebook or Instagram browser settings.

So a buyer in Instagram's browser may see details they saved with Meta. They won't see the cards saved in Safari or Chrome, or their sign-in to your store. Whether Meta's autofill shows on your checkout is Meta's call, not yours.

Shop Pay inside an app's browser

Shop Pay still works there, with an extra step. Shopify says a returning buyer on the same device can check out without a passkey or a text message. Otherwise Shop Pay buyers verify "using their Shop passkey or a unique six-digit code that they receive by text message or email" (Shopify Help Center: Shop Pay). On iPhone, an app's own web view can't offer the Shop passkey, so expect the code: a trip to messages or email in the middle of checkout.

if you're the buyer: paying with Apple Pay from Instagram

On iPhone:

1. Before you fill the cart, open the app's menu on the shop's page and choose the option to open it in your browser. If there isn't one, copy the link and paste it into Safari. A guest cart you start in the app's browser stays there.
2. In Safari, add the item and go to checkout. If the store offers Apple Pay and you have a card in Wallet, the button is there.

On Android:

1. Open the shop's page in Chrome from the app's menu, or copy the link and paste it into Chrome.
2. Your saved cards and Google Pay are there, where the checkout offers them.

Where each app's menu sits, and what it's called, varies by app and version. The steps for the two biggest are in Instagram's in-app browser and TikTok's in-app browser.

for sellers: get more checkouts from Instagram and TikTok traffic

What helps:

1. Get buyers into their own browser before checkout. That's where Apple Pay, Google Pay, saved cards and their sign-in to your store are. On linkboo Pro, linkboo's deeplinking shows fans the way out of the app's browser. Depending on the app, their own browser opens by itself, or they press and hold one button to open it. Your linkboo page opens there, and they tap your shop link from it. On linkboo's Free plan, your page opens inside the app's browser like any other link page.
2. Make the card form easy to fill. If you run your own checkout form, give the card fields the standard autofill names from the HTML standard (cc-name, cc-number, cc-exp, cc-csc), so whatever saved details a browser has can fill in (WHATWG HTML Standard: autofill).
3. Don't make an account a condition of paying. A buyer who's signed out in the app's browser then meets a sign-up form before the card form. Guest checkout lets them pay.
4. Tell buyers once, in plain words. A line in your caption such as "open in your browser to pay with Apple Pay" helps the buyers who read it.

What doesn't help:

• Changing your theme or payment settings when Apple Pay shows in Safari but not in Instagram. Your settings aren't the difference; the browser is.
• A link shortener or redirect. The app decides where a link opens. A shortened link opens in the same app's browser.
• Adding a pixel. A pixel reports sales. It doesn't bring back a missing Apple Pay button or a saved card.

claim your link →

recovered revenue, Shopify and the Meta pixel: what to measure

• linkboo doesn't connect to Shopify or send purchases to Meta's pixel. It counts what happens on your linkboo page: page views, where they came from, and clicks on each link. Every plan shows recent page views and clicks; Pro adds longer date ranges (pricing has the details).
• To send purchases to Meta, use Shopify's own channel. In Shopify admin it's Sales channels > Facebook & Instagram, then Settings, then Data sharing settings, with three levels: Standard, Enhanced or Maximum. Shopify says its Conversions API option "sends the purchase event between Shopify and Facebook servers" (Shopify Help Center: Meta data sharing).
• "Recovered revenue" is a claim to check yourself. Put UTM tags on the shop link inside your linkboo page: linkboo passes them through unchanged. (UTM tags added to your link.boo address itself aren't kept.) Then compare checkout completion for that source in your store's reports, before and after you change anything. More in UTM parameters on Instagram and TikTok links.
• On Pro, give an app its own bio link, such as one for Instagram. Analytics counts each bio link's taps separately, so you can compare the places you share it. Pro includes one; pricing covers adding more.

related reading

• Stripe Checkout failing inside TikTok's browser: the same problem on Stripe's hosted checkout.
• Why Instagram and TikTok links lose sales: the steps before checkout where buyers drop off.
• Passkeys failing in in-app browsers: why the passkey prompt never appears.