Can I use Square on tablet and phone?

[u3astudent]

Hi. Newbie here, needing help please. Is it possible to use my new Square reader with my tablet occasionally, for better visibility, but also on my Samsung phone?

Not both at the same time  - either/or.

Thanks. 

[Seamus]

Hey @u3astudent,

Yes, you can do this!

Provided both your phone and tablet are listed as compatible you can swap the reader between devices and log into the same Square account on the app on both devices 👍

[u3astudent]

Yes, they are compatible. That's great, thanks so much @Seamus 

Is it possible to pair them both to Square at the same time, or should I pair one - close it down - pair the other?

[Seamus]

@u3astudent you'll only be able to pair one reader to one device at a time - so if you wish to take payments one two devices at the same time you'd need 2 readers.

[u3astudent]

No, not at the same time @Seamus  what I meant was - will I have to re-do the pairing process each time I use the other device? Or once they've been paired, will they remain paired, and ready for me to use one or the other?

[Seamus · Accepted solution]

@u3astudent got you! 

I just tested and this worked provided you you close the app on one device before opening the app on the other device.

With that said, bluetooth devices can be temperamental sometimes when they're in the vicinity of two mobile devices they been connected to - keep in mind you may need to manually forget and re-pair sometimes.

[u3astudent]

Perfect! Thanks for your help @Seamus ⚘

[u3astudent]

Just a PS on this, @Seamus 

I have now successfully paired my phone and tablet to my card reader - the phone (Samsun Galaxy S8) was dead easy, exactly as per YouTube instructions - BUT I had real trouble with the tablet (Lenovo TAB 2 A10-30). It kept trying to pair, then failing - reset, red lights - retry - etc - very frustrating.

I finally realised, quite by accident, that I needed to pair it from my tablets Bluetooth Paired Devices screen - the reader was sitting on there under my paired phone and laptop, as an Accessible Device - and when I clicked on it (with the orange lights flashing on the reader) it connected immediately.

So I thought this might be worth mentioning in future instructions for newbies?

Thanks so much for all your help 🙂

[Seamus]

Hey @u3astudent,

Glad you got things working in the end!

What you're describing is not intended behavior - though I can see that maybe trying to connect one device via BT settings may have overridden an existing BT connection on another device, which then allowed the connection via the app that you attempted to kick in. 

It's possible you may have achieved the same thing by manually forgetting the reader from both the Square app/BT settings on all devices, then pairing the reader via the Square app on the Lenovo. 

To clarify, you still were not able to take payments using both devices at the same time with a single reader?

[u3astudent]

Hi, @Seamus 

Re payments - haven't tried to use both Tablet and Phone at once, so I don't know. 

Re pairing - no, it was odd - fortunately, I tried pairing the card reader with the Lenovo Tablet first - and had all the problems with it not working, etc, as I described earlier.

I only tried with pairing the card reader with the phone after I finally accidentally got the tablet paired, and then shut it down so it couldn't interfere.

The phone paired perfectly, straight away.

Probably a dumb question, but what are BT settings? 

[Seamus]

@u3astudent BT = Bluetooth 🙂