This new feature would provide 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 tie into Apple Intelligence that Apple may be showcasing at WWDC, but it certainly looks like the type of tool that can use device AI to deliver intelligent 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 bill items to different people, and the feature could even include calculating taxes and tips. The new feature would generate payment requests for all participants, who can pay their bill via Apple Cash. This payment feature for the Messages app, Apple Cash, is already available for US iPhone users.
Potential problems
If a bill sharing feature comes to iOS 27, the report doesn’t address potential complications. The first being that the new service is apparently tied to the Apple Cash feature – allowing people to send and receive money through the Messages app on iPhone – which is only available in the US. This would pose a problem for international groups of friends sharing the costs of meals at restaurants around the world. One possible solution would be a broader deployment of Apple Cash.
The second important limitation concerns the operating systems that Apple is tackling. The Bloomberg article states that bill splitting will work on the iPhone and Apple Watch, both of which are part of Apple’s ecosystem. It makes no mention of Android and Apple Cash is not available on Android. A group of friends including both iPhone and Android users would not be able to split the bill using the native iPhone tool available in iOS 27. A solution to this type of problem could be to use the bill sharing feature for the iPhone users in the group and a third-party tool for the Android users.
Finally, it’s unclear whether Apple’s 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 would handle the entire payment. In the case of the latter, the tool would be used only to send money requests or payments via Apple Cash.
Apple Sherlocking more apps
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, 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, including Venmo, Cash App, Splitwise, Tab and Settle Up. These services would compete directly with Apple’s solution and could lose some users, provided that Apple’s tool works as advertised from the start.
However, some of the limitations mentioned above would favor third-party apps that can handle bill splitting, including the lack of Android support. It seems unlikely that 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-sharing app. Of course, this is just speculation based on the Bloomberg report, but everything will be made official when Apple holds its WWDC 2026 keynote on June 8.
