Reports surfaced Tuesday that Square is beta-testing a new mobile app called Square Pickup, which allows customers to order ahead of time from Square merchants, and pay within app ahead of pickup.
Mashable visited Lunch Geek on Wednesday, a partner restaurant less than 100 yards from Square headquarters, and picked up download codes for the app's beta version. Square appears to be partnering with 11 restaurants in San Francisco, all within 1.5 miles of the company's new headquarters.
See also: Inside Square's Massive New San Francisco Headquarters
At least one restaurant partner said it's been testing the app for three weeks, and Square employees sporadically stop by for pickups. Multiple other restaurant partners said the program started Tuesday, which may be the date the company began testing with non-Square employees.
A Square spokesperson declined to comment on the app directly, instead releasing a statement to Mashable that said, "We work closely with our customers throughout our product development to ensure we are building the best tools for sellers and their customers. We have nothing else to share at this time."
Mashable's San Francisco office tested the app on Wednesday for lunch. Here's what we found:
The interface is sleek and simple. If you already have a Square Wallet account, sign in only requires entering your username and password. Those who do not have an account can create one from the login screen.
As with Square Wallet, creating an account requires users to enter a credit or debit card for payment. These cards can be edited within the app, and users with technical issues are encouraged to send feedback to Square by clicking a small message icon in the upper right-hand corner of the home screen.
There is no Android version of the app yet. When Android users sign up for the beta version online, they are greeted with this message: "Thanks for joining the Square Pickup preview. We’re working hard on the finishing touches for the Android app, and can’t wait for you to try it. We’ll be in touch soon with more details on how to get early access." So Android is coming. But on Wednesday, we stuck with iOS for our test.

Once a user is logged in, he will see a list of nearby restaurants, including distance and estimated pickup time.
Image: Square
It appears that Square only has 11 restaurant partners in the San Francisco area for the time being. Each of those restaurants are listed on the home screen, along with large images, an address, distance from your location, and current wait time for an order. Most pick-up times were 15 to 20 minutes.
Clicking on a restaurant brings users to its menu, which is broken down into categories, depending on the location's offerings. For example, a deli might have categories such as beverages, hot sandwiches, cold sandwiches and salads. Once a user clicks on an item, he or she can edit that item with add-ons ("add bacon") or special requests ("no mayonnaise").

Restaurants list their menu within the app, and users can see prices and a running total in the upper right-hand corner.
Image: Square
A running tab calculates the user's total cost in the upper right-hand corner of the app, and takes add-ons into account. Clicking on that tab brings the user to his checkout basket where tax is added, and users can give a tip. The tip feature doesn't appear to be working at this time, or none of the participating restaurants want a tip. We assume the former.

When users are ready to order, they can do so from their basket. The restaurant charges his account automatically, and a receipt is emailed.
Image: Square
Users can click on a restaurant within the app to get its address, phone number and business hours. They can also click on a map icon, which will transfer them to their smartphone's default map service.
Restaurants charge a user's credit card automatically, and a receipt is emailed. All a user needs to do is walk into the restaurant, and collect the food.

When an order is placed, Square offers you an overview within the app before emailing a receipt. Users can also receive notifications when their food is ready for pickup.
Image: Square
Overall, the app was simple to use, visually appealing and worked nearly flawlessly on iOS. We ordered from two separate restaurants, both of which had the food ready on time, and were familiar with how to use the app.
The biggest critique we have is that there is no Android version yet — it's disappointing for users who wants to test the product, but may be out of luck.
At times, the restaurant distances were inaccurate, showing nearby restaurants to be thousands of miles away. This was solved with a quick refresh of the app. Restaurant menus that include "soup of the day" or "daily special" also didn't have any details, making it difficult to order those items. We predict that these minor bug fixes will be cleared up, as users engage with Pickup.
Overall, the beta app worked well. We're excited to see Square add new restaurants to the list. With the company's acquisition of Bookfresh on Wednesday, it's clear Square is moving far beyond simple payment transactions. Pickup appears to be the next step in that process.
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