More Speed, More Stability: Reliability Improvements That Keep Your Business Moving

Speed, reliability, and having confidence in your tools are all essential when you’re running a business. One business owner told our team, “I can’t pour the beer faster, so my checkout better be fast.” That kind of insight sticks with us and drives the work we do. We know that even small slowdowns or unexpected crashes can create real disruptions that affect your bottom line. That’s why reliability is a continuous effort and a top priority for our team at Square. We listen closely to your feedback, and it guides how we improve the Square platform.

We’ve been investing heavily in the foundational performance of the Square platform across our Point of Sale (POS) app, Dashboard, APIs, and hardware connections to make sure your experience is faster, more stable, and more predictable, even during peak periods.

Over the last few quarters, we’ve made meaningful progress. We’ve reduced Square Reader disconnects by 70%. Checkout speeds are now more than twice as fast. App crashes are down significantly. And when things do go wrong, your system is better equipped to handle it by switching to take payment offline automatically (and coming back online as soon as possible). Some of these changes you’ll notice right away. Others, you may only notice because the pain points that used to slow you down no longer do. 

Here’s what’s new, how it helps, and what you can expect moving forward.

Reliability improvements for outage management and offline payments

Outages happen. But when they do, your business shouldn’t have to stop. We’ve made several improvements to help you continue accepting payments, stay informed, and recover quickly.

Better business continuity with offline payments

We know that the switch to offline payments⁴ and back online hasn’t always been smooth, so we’ve made under-the-hood improvements so that Square POS now switches into taking offline payments and back online as soon as a stable connection is reestablished more seamlessly than ever. That means if your internet or connection to Square drops, your POS can continue to take payments automatically, with no extra effort. Nothing will seem out of place to your customers; they won’t even know you were offline. And once your connection is restored, those saved payments are processed right away.

Live updates and alerts

We’ve also made it easier to stay updated during an outage. The Square Live Status Page now delivers faster updates as incidents unfold, so you can monitor progress more closely as we resolve issues. You can also opt in to receive email or text notifications about the status of an outage, helping you stay informed in real time.

Even more improvements across the platform

Beyond outages, we’ve been working steadily across the board to make every part of your experience smoother, faster, and more reliable. These are the kinds of updates that make a difference day in, day out, especially during peak hours.

Reader connectivity improvements

If you’ve ever had a card reader disconnect in the middle of a rush, you know how frustrating and costly it can be. Our contactless readers are built to give you flexibility, whether you’re taking payments at the counter, on the floor, or out in the field. But that flexibility doesn’t mean much if the connection isn’t stable. That’s why we’ve made them more reliable. We’ve reduced disconnect rates by 70% so your reader is ready whenever you need it. Fewer interruptions mean fewer delays and a smoother checkout experience for you and your customers.

We’ve also introduced wired connectivity options for Square Reader. You can now connect it directly to compatible Android devices using a USB cable, with seamless switching between USB and Bluetooth as needed. Wired support for iOS devices is coming soon.

POS performance: Improved cart to checkout speed

We’ve spent the last several months improving the speed of one of the most critical parts of your business: the checkout experience. 

Specifically, we’ve improved the speed from cart to payment completion by up to 55%. If you’re running a high-volume business, like a coffee shop, bar, or quick-service restaurant, you may have already felt the difference, especially when you’re checking out a large order. That delay between tapping “checkout” and moving to the next screen used to take nearly a full second. Now, it’s under 500 milliseconds. It’s a change you feel in the rhythm of your day, when every tap flows naturally and every second saved helps you serve more customers.

We’ve also made improvements to Dashboard, where you manage your business. It now loads 30% faster, helping you move from insight to action more quickly.

Point of sale crash rate improvement

Even though the Square POS apps have always had low crash rates, we knew we could do better. So we worked to reduce them and today, crash rates across our POS apps are down by 43%, making it less likely that your app will crash during a critical moment. That means smoother checkouts, fewer interruptions, and a more dependable experience from open to close.

Staying focused on what matters

These improvements are part of our ongoing commitment to making Square more stable, more responsive, and more reliable for your day-to-day needs. Behind the scenes, some of our most experienced engineers are now dedicated to platform performance full-time. Across our app platforms, we’ve built focused teams working specifically on reliability. We’ve set clear goals for uptime to hold ourselves accountable. Every improvement is measured, from system uptime to payment success rates and error rates to load times and crash reduction.

We’ve made some progress, but we’re not stopping here. We’ll continue making improvements to deliver a fast, reliable, and seamless experience so you can stay focused on running your business.