thread Re: Reader + terminal in Payments Troubleshooting

Reader + terminal

BoroExec — Sun, 21 Sep 2025 12:00:23 GMT

I use my square terminal in my taxi, it's fixed in at the front if the vehicle. I want to make it easier for customers to pay contactless by having a little square reader in the rear of the vehicle.

My question is...can I attach a reader to my terminal and run two devices that are in sync with each other?

Re: Reader + terminal

tranguyen — Thu, 14 Jan 2021 09:42:32 GMT

Hi @BoroExec, thanks for your post! It isn't possible to connect the Square Card Reader directly to the Square Terminal unfortunately. The card reader only works when pairing with a mobile device like your phone or tablet.

If you have a mobile device to pair with the reader, you can definitely run both the Terminal and the reader at the same time to take payments.

Re: Reader + terminal

BoroExec — Thu, 14 Jan 2021 11:22:24 GMT

So effectively I have to pair the reader to the phone whilst running Square pos app and connect the terminal via hotspot, effectively running two screens.

Re: Reader + terminal

tranguyen — Thu, 14 Jan 2021 12:40:52 GMT

Yes, that's correct. Basically, the reader and the Terminal will run independently of each other. If you wish to push sales from one device to another, you'd need to usethe open ticket feature which may not be ideal in a taxi.

Re: Reader + terminal

BoroExec — Thu, 14 Jan 2021 13:20:41 GMT

Thanks for the info.

Going forward, maybe Square could look into the possibility of linking readers to terminals.

With the present health situation, the taxi community are actively looking for a contactless solution to service both front and rear passengers. I believe a simple software upgrade to the Bluetooth in the terminals would solve this problem and allow reader link-up

Re: Reader + terminal

tranguyen — Thu, 14 Jan 2021 14:45:18 GMT

Thanks so much for your suggestion @BoroExec, I'll be sure to pass it to our Product team for future updates.