We’re upgrading your customer ordering for even more sales – at no additional cost. We originally launched Square Kiosk to be similar to our Square Online experience. But this meant that kiosk ordering with finger taps on an iPad was relying on a customer experience originally designed for mouse clicks on a desktop. So behind the scenes, we’ve been working to optimize Square Kiosk for customer ordering conversions and for your own convenience as a food-and-beverage operator. Here’s where we landed:
Keep reading to understand how these changes will benefit your business, and find out what this change means for you. Also note that you will need to make sure your app is up-to-date once you receive notice that this change is coming to your business.
Updates available in the coming days:
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Visual Categories: Browse menus faster with photo-based sections -- with all categories visible at once.
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Bigger Text: Read and tap menu items easily with larger, clearer text.
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Cart Always in View: See your items and total instantly while you order.
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Lightning-Fast Loading: Start ordering right away with zero wait time.
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Simplified Item Assignment: Control your kiosk menu visibility more easily with a new toggle at the item level in Square Dashboard.
Our team has been testing, and we’re seeing up to 30% faster order entry time.
What to Do to Get Ready:
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Adjust where you control item visibility in Square Dashboard. Going forward, to update an item’s visibility for it to appear on your kiosk menu, you can go to Item > "where it's sold" > select Kiosks. You no longer need to update Site Visibility or Fulfillment for kiosk visibility. Note that you will need the item’s Category to also have Kiosks toggled on for the item to show. You can access full directions and learn how to bulk update availability in this article.
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Add category images if you don’t have them yet. If any of your categories don’t have an image, an image for an item within that category will show instead. For example, if you don’t have a category image for “Drinks,” Square Kiosk will automatically pull an example drink picture from your menu for you.
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Be aware that marketing customization will change for the foreseeable future. In order to standardize menus and optimize for order sales conversions, we are temporarily removing the welcome screen background image and font size control. With that said, all of our beta sellers of this new experience have been happy with the change.
Ready to get started?
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On your iPad, go to Settings > App Store and turn "App Updates" ON.
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In Settings, scroll to the Square Kiosk app and set Background App Refresh to ON.
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Close and reopen the Square Kiosk app. (This will require you exit Guided Access mode on each device, if you are not using third-party Mobile Device Management to control devices from a back office).
ℹ️ Note: Updates are rolling out gradually over the next few weeks. If you don't see the update yet, please check again later. You'll receive an email notification approximately 48 hours before your update is ready.
Share your feedback! From your desktop Square Dashboard, go to Settings > Device Management > Kiosk. Click Share Feedback at the bottom right, rate your experience (1-7), and let us know your thoughts.
Frequently Asked Questions
Does this change the monthly software cost of Square Kiosk?
No.
What are the benefits to my business?
Speed up checkout lines with faster checkout, guide new customers through their first order seamlessly.
Any limitations to be aware of?
In standardizing the ordering experience to optimize for conversions, we are applying consistent font to every menu and removing the marketing background image on your welcome screen. Note, though, that this is a temporary change as our team builds out additional marketing controls in the future.