Meet Our Square Hardware Team: How can we improve Square's payment products?

[Tom]

On August 19th at 11am PT / 2pm ET, our Square Hardware team hosted a virtual office hours session on this thread!

This time around, we asked you to dream big — if you could design any piece of hardware for accepting payments:

• What features would your ideal point of sale include?
• What would your ideal point of sale look like?
• What products do you wish Square made?
• Thinking about existing Square hardware, what would the most important enhancements be?
  

Our hosts were @ChristinainHW, @nika_sq, @Rowan, @hanswang, @GetGreg, and @nsnow. Altogether, they have ten years of experience working on Square products and they're excited to answer questions, learn about your business needs, and make sure your insights are included with the development process.

We responded to as many replies as we could on Thursday, August 19th. Looking ahead, we will summarize your questions and responses about your ideal hardware experience in a follow-up post. And, of course, we will incorporate all of your feedback as we continue to improve the payment experience!

Note on account-specific questions: For your privacy and security, we are not able to address issues related to specific account status details in our public forums. If you need account assistance, please contact our Customer Success team and they'll be able to take a deeper dive.

[#2]

Update:

Thank you to everyone who asked questions! We're grateful for the wide variety of real world insights and feedback.

I'm checking in at the end of the hour to let you know that the time to post new questions has closed, and our Hardware team members will continue to follow up on as many questions as they can over the next few days.

We also noticed a lot of questions related to software—which makes sense—there's a lot of overlap between hardware and software. Rest assured that we'll review everything you shared and surface your experiences with the appropriate teams.

Thank you for your patience and keep watch for updates.

[Rowan]

EBT payments are on our radar but you are right that it’s not something we currently support. However, I’d love to learn more about how often you would use it, what percentage of transactions you take are EBT and what hardware devices you’d need it on. Thank you!

We appreciate the feedback on adding more point of sale functionality to a desktop computer. We support simple transactions via the Square Virtual Terminal but understand that it does not allow for complex ticket tracking. We’ll be sure to pass along this feedback to our Virtual Terminal team.

We agree that accessing the camera on mobile devices for barcode scanning is a very useful feature! Our Square for Retail app actually already supports this on both iPhones and iPads. Feel free to try it out and let us know what you think.

[TJae101]

I would purchase a register if it supported a label printer. 

Also, your products lean heavily towards Apple and some do not appreciate Apple. Make your software run equally on Android products as well as Apple, please. Can't tell you how many times we have nearly upgraded only to find out there is no point because we don't have access to a feature because we don't own an iPad. 

[ChristinainHW]

Hey TJae101 - thanks for the feedback. We just launched sticky label printer compatibility for Square Register and on Android! 

What are the features you miss most on Android that are on the iPad?

[TBHospitalityNY]

Hi there!

Add bluetooth for wireless scanning with the terminal. Or add a scanner to the unit 🙂

New version of the POS should allow for more text when the "text-based" icons are selected. There's plenty of room for more text, or allow us to change the scale.

Re-order buttons... It's a must have that every single employee asks for.

[TBHospitalityNY]

Forgot to mention device specific printing settings (rather than location), so I can allow for physical printing on one square register but paper printing on a different one. Depending on if it is counter service.

Better notifications for orders, whether louder chimes, a pop-up, etc.

Limiting discounts so many can’t be applied at the same time.

[GetGreg]

Thanks for the great list of ideas, @TBHospitalityNY! So much to talk about ...

First, you may be aware, but right now you can connect Square Terminal with wired barcode scanners by connecting it with Square Hub. 

Compatibility with bluetooth for Terminal is definitely on our minds - which bluetooth scanner would you want to use with Square Terminal? Other than scanners, what would you connect with?

We hear you on the appearance of the number of characters for text based icons, and the ability to reorder icons. We’ll pass that feedback on to the right team.

[TBHospitalityNY]

For the wireless scanners, we were hoping to use any of the compatible Socket scanners. Off the top of my head I could imagine some people would want to use compatible BT scales as well.

[kevin724]

Automatic printing of online (weebly) orders without having to turn on printing for every in store transaction.

[kasmiller]

Ability to use integrated apps on the register: i.e. Homebase

Better way to limit discounts to only certain items, not products

Loyalty rewards when applied to a transaction where a gift card was purchased, lowers the gift card amount on the sales receipt, but the customer has full amount on gift card, this makes our reports off.

Easier way to change sales tax-sales tax in our area changes by the city/county.  At events this is a real pain

Label printer would be awesome

Ability to have pictures for modifications

Ability to keep inventory using modifications. Ex: we sell sodas and ice cream floats. It's impossible to track inventory on soda because we can't inventory soda on a float since that is rung up as a modification.

A longer than 4 digit code, fingerprint or key card o perform certain things on the register.  It takes our teens exactly one time watching us enter our code on a giant keypad for them to know the code to access everything on the register.

[kasmiller]

In line 2-certain items not CATEGORIES

[GourmetOnWheels]

Would be nice if the Square terminal could connect with both Bluetooth and Wifi instead of only wifi.

[GetGreg]

Thanks for this feedback! Compatibility with bluetooth for Terminal is definitely on our minds.

What is are the devices you want to connect Terminal to via Bluetooth?

[Donnie-M]

I want to thank you for keeping hardware in the hands of us, the sellers.  I love being able to use off the shelf products like an ipad or android tablet and get things done.

1.  Customer facing display option for square stand.  Some kind of small lcd display screen or add on to attach to the square stand.  I know there are a lot of small touch displays now.  I think this would be a great product if developed in house to use with the square stand.  And as I write this, how about just making it where the square terminal can link to the ipad stand and function as customer facing display and dip/swipe/tap?  We need this to not have to spinny spinny the tablet around so much.

2.  The way the stand attached to the base:  I have had 2 of the screws shear off at the base leaving me with an aluminum disc I can't get off without an act of congress.

3.  How about RGB on the square stand?  who doesn't love RGB lighting effects?

Donnie-M

[Rowan]

Developing a customer facing display that could be used with Square Stand is a use case we’re very interested in. Can you tell us more about why Square Register with the included customer display isn’t a good fit for you?

Also, if you’re interested in using Square Terminal as a customer facing display with your computer. Check out Square Virtual Terminal here.

I’m very sorry to hear about your frustration with the Square Stand adhesive plate. We redesigned this part for our most recent Square Stand for 10.2” and 10.5” iPads so that the adhesive can be ‘peeled off’ after installation for a more seamless removal experience. I realize this doesn’t help with the screw shearing off but hopefully it’s a step in the right direction.

When you mention RGB on Square Stand are you looking for additional status lights or something to help with payments? And I agree that (tasteful) lights can elevate most hardware!

[Donnie-M]

@Rowan Hey there and thank you for the thoughtful time with my post.

1.  I have used ipad and android tablets since I began with square,  (September 2017) maybe even before the register was an option.  I personally prefer the ipad experience with crispness and speed vs. what I know to sometimes happen with android based kernals.  Also the ability to get off the shelf replacements, pull an ipad to line bust, take an ipad to let a manager do a truck order with a distributor app, and the quality of apple display (brightness, resolution), I have preferred the stability and benefits of an ipad experience.  But the most important factor was with multiple locations, I was able to have quite a bit of redundancy.  

2.  My thought with the square terminal was if it could be used as a customer facing display with the ipad and stand.  Currently, I understand the terminal can integrate with some third party software for payments, so I was thinking why not square's own POS/Ipad stand.  It would alleviate the need to flip the stand around to get customers to enter a tip.  In a nutshell, if the square register was a removable ipad...whamo awesome.

3.  I appreciate that some love was given to the stand plate.  I am not sure the engineering that would be involved to have the connection cord be not part of the bottom base on the underside.

4.  RGB for me would be aesthetics. If the trim of the stand or hidden behind the tablet under the hinge or under the stand had customizable lights you could theme your stand to your brand colors.  I am going to have to do a mockup with this.

[Rowan]

I appreciate the thorough reply @Donnie-M.

That makes sense that you prefer using an iPad for your business. It definitely offers a level of flexibility that's hard to beat.

I will say that we hear requests for a separate customer display on Square Stand quite frequently and it's something our team has given a lot of thought towards. I can't commit to anything right now but we hear you loud and clear on the need.

I like that idea to emphasize your brand with subtle colors on the POS! We've slowly ventured into this space with the ability to add custom images to the customer display on Square Register, but it's a bit harder to implement on Square Stand. I'll keep it in mind though as we explore future improvements to this product.

[KAFrye]

I bought the touchless/chip reader and it has been nothing but trouble.  It continuously goes to sleep and I have to press the button and wait on it to wake up before I can use it.  It has slowed my business down to a grinding halt at times.  Also, this past weekend, I could not even accept payments on the original square piece that plugs in.  We have been with square for 7 years and this year we have had more trouble than ever.

[BaileyInSA]

Same.  Mine never was usable and square would not take it back. Any cost is a cost to me and I was upset Square would not help out. That divide is nothing I'd recommend.

[hanswang]

Hi @KAFrye and @BaileyInSA, apologies for the inconvenience here. 

KAFrye - do you only use the contactless and chip reader intermittently? The Reader will shut down after a certain period of time of  to conserve battery.  

BaileyInSA - were you unable to get a warranty through customer support? 

[rtfulk]

1. When a sale is complete, instantly go back to register instead of having to hit new sale.

2. Have more options for Bluetooth scanners and mobile printers.

3. Make the beep louder when a chip card is complete.

4, The last update the tax calculation is so slow now.

5. Bring back customer display  for the white square stands, it has stopped working for me.

6. Make a universal chip reader case for phones and use the camera for the barcode reader.

[BaileyInSA]

I'd like a less expensive alternative to the Ipad. I already have the square stand but the Ipad went out. Now to replace the Ipad through square I must get another stand which I do not need. How about an Android compatible device?