screenshots via Obama re-election campaign

Social media was a game-changing technology that helped alter the course of the 2008 presidential election. In 2012, mobile payments could be the transformational technology, as millions of political supporters are given the ability to collect money on smartphones for candidates.

On Monday, President Obama’s re-election campaign announced that it would immediately begin using Square, a mobile payments start-up company based in San Francisco, with campaign staffers and some approved volunteers. “Squares are being sent to our campaign offices across the country,” said Katie Hogan, a spokeswoman for Mr. Obama’s re-election campaign.

The announcement is just the first part of the strategy the Obama campaign plans to employ for mobile donations over the coming months.

“Eventually we want to make a version of the Obama Square application available to everyone from within the App Store,” Ms. Hogan said, referring to Apple’s iTunes store for apps. “Someone who is a supporter of the campaign can then download the app, get a Square attachment and can go around collecting donations.” The application would automatically send donation money directly to the Obama campaign.

If the Square rollout is successful, and others follow, campaigns could send out armies of volunteers brandishing the Square credit card reader and collecting millions of dollars in micro-payments from political supporters.

Ms. Hogan said the Obama campaign has worked with Square to develop a unique mobile application that allows people to make mobile donations that are compliant with the Federal Election Commission’s rules.

An F.E.C. spokeswomen said the Square application would need to collect the name, address, city, state and ZIP code, and occupation and employer of the donor on a smartphone. All of this information, along with the date of the contribution, would be collected from a Square-enabled smartphone application.

As was evident with the Obama campaign’s use of Twitter and other social technologies, the Republican nominees are not far behind.

Mitt Romney’s campaign plans to announced a similar Republican-themed Square application on Tuesday that will allow campaign officials to collect donations on a smartphone.

Zac Moffatt, digital director for the Romney campaign, said the Romney team planned to experiment with the Square donation process “as a beta test” on Tuesday night during the primary election.

“We’re going to be testing it in Florida tomorrow night to see how it works and then hope to roll it out to the rest of the country,” Mr. Moffatt said. “Anything that reduces the barrier to donate is going to help us with our supporters.”

Daniel Rubin, strategic partnerships manager at Square, who works with political campaigns and major nonprofit organizations, said Square was partnering with a number of campaigns to make 2012 the year mobile payments change the way donations are collected on the ground.

“It’s now easier than ever to give to campaigns of any political stripe,” Mr. Rubin said. “At a campaign, or any political event, donors will be able to give on the spot. They won’t have to run home and get a check or fill out long paper forms.”

Mr. Rubin said: “In 2008, online donations were really a game-changer for the election. With Square, mobile payments will be the game-changer for 2012.”