British fintech company Curve has launched contactless payments for iPhone users in the European Union, becoming the second third-party

Apple Pay is now the fifth most widely available online payment option as more shoppers ditch traditional checkout forms for faster, mobile-first alternatives.

The comeback appeared in jeopardy after Apple initially refused to approve Fortnite’s bid before Apple relented this week, clearing the app for U.S. users. It’s also back in the European Union, where alternative app marketplaces have been mandated since last year.

Curve was previously known for its Apple Pay integration. Now, the payment service is taking advantage of the new NFC freedom and launching its iPhone wallet.

Reports of Apple Pay not working began pouring in after 8 a.m. Friday and surged past 2,000 half an hour later.

Apple's official status page just updated saying that Apple Pay and Apple Wallet are back up. Like Card and Cash, the update simply says that it has "resolved issue" and the some users were affected. And that's about it for official comment from Apple.

Thousands reported problems using Apple Pay on Friday, May 16, according to the outage tracker website, Downdetector. According to the site, reports peaked at over 2,800 at around noon ET on Friday, with a slight decrease in reports an hour later. Reports about issues appeared to have subsided shortly after 1 p.m. ET.

PayPal has debuted contactless iPhone payments, initially in Germany, working just like Apple Pay. The iPhone will never be the same again.

Apple's mobile payment services Apple Card, Apple Cash, Apple Pay and the Wallet app were experiencing outages on Friday.