Google I/O – Google Goes Contactless With Android Pay

Google has laid out its plans to kill off traditional payments with the launch of its own mobile pay system.

Revealed at Google I/O conference last night, Android Pay will allow Android users to quickly and easily use their mobile devices to pay for goods or services at a shop checkout using a contactless terminal.

Launching in the US ‘soon’ before expanding worldwide later this year, users simply need to link in their credit or debit card to an Android Pay account before using the service at over 700,000 shops.

Tap and go

Google has also signed up a host of big-name retailers, including Subway, McDonalds and Staples, to include loyalty programs and special offers within Android Pay.

This means that loyalty points from a linked account will automatically be applied when paying for certain goods, and vouchers or special bonuses can also be linked in without needing to open a separate app.

Android Pay is also aiming to make shopping online using a mobile device easier than ever before. Instead of needing to repeatedly enter your credit card and shipping address each time you make a purchase online, users can now just select “Buy with Android Pay” and proceed through the checkout with a series of taps.

The service supports all well-known card providers including Visa, Mastercard, American Express, and Discover, and Google has also signed up many of the leading payment providers to Android Pay, including the likes of Braintree and Stripe.

Security is provided via industry standard tokenisation technology, meaning that Android Pay never includes any card numbers with your payment, safeguarding personal data in case of a data breach.

And if your phone is ever lost or stolen, users can simply access Android Device Manager to instantly lock your device from anywhere, secure it with a new password or even wipe it clean of your personal information.

The launch is the latest high-profile payments system to go live this year, following Apple’s release of Apple Pay last September, which has already seen up to two million users sign up.

Samsung also released its own mobile payments system, Samsung Pay, alongside the launch of the Galaxy S6 and S6 Edge smartphones at Mobile World Congress back in March, showing how important an area that payments will be for mobile users from now on.

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