Google To Launch ‘Android Pay’ In May

Google is reportedly set to unveil a mobile payments system as it looks to compete with the likes of Apple Pay.

Reports have claimed that the search giant will unveil an Android Pay API at its annual I/O developer conference in May, which has traditionally been a revealing point in the past for new devices and services.

It means that Android users will soon be able to quickly and easily use their devices to pay for goods and services either in stores or using third party apps.

Easy pay

However the rumoured Android Pay service will run alongside, and not replace, Google’s existing Google Wallet service (pictured left), a source told Ars Technica, with the new system being ‘built from the ground up’.

Google Wallet links a user’s credit cards, debit cards, gift cards, loyalty cards and offers, with payments able to be made for online purchases and in shops using contactless NFC chips, with developers able to use its API to add ‘Buy with Google’ buttons to apps.

However, Android Pay would allow companies to supersede this by letting them add a mobile payments option to their app, to which users can upload credit card or debit card information, so that payments become single-tap transactions within the app.

Rumours surrounding a specialist Android payment system have been circulating for several months following the high initial success of Apple Pay, which attracted over one million users in its first three days.

This increased following Google’s successful bid for payment specialists Softcard earlier this week, which the company said would be integrated into Google Wallet, which lets users send money to other Google account holders.

Samsung has also suggested it would soon be entering the mobile payments market following its purchase of LoopPay, which turns existing magnetic-stripe readers into secure, contactless receivers, mimicking a credit card swipe.

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