Google has rolled out Android Pay, which will work the same way as Apple Pay. With Android Pay, shoppers can make purchases at more than million retail locations that are located in the United States. Android Pay also stores loyalty cards, gift cards, and it will provide special offers directly to the shoppers’ mobile device. All NFC enabled Android devices are compatible with Android Pay but should be running on KitKat 4.4 and later. Android Pay also works across all carriers. Android Pay supports the four major payment networks: Discover, American Express, Visa and MasterCard. Android Pay also accommodates cards that are issued by many popular credit unions and popular U.S. banks.
It is anticipated that Capital One, Wells Fargo, and Citi will join the program in the coming months. Android Pay and Google Wallet are built on the same technology. In fact, it is expected that Google Wallet will change into Android Pay through an over the air update. Google Wallet has a new version of the application that has been introduced by Google. Google Wallet will work as a cash swap service that will work much like Square Cash or PayPal. Android Pay works as an extension of a debit or credit card, but with an additional layer of security.
For users to be able to use Android Pay, they are expected to load debit, credit, and gift card data onto their compatible Android device. Android Pay users can use their handset and leave their cards at home. The app works at participating merchants. The introduction of Android Pay may have resolved the issues that have been curtailing the adoption of Google Wallet. The original Google Wallet had suffered from political opposition from carriers, but Google has managed to overcome it. Google Wallet had also suffered from a lack of user awareness which has been sorted out by Apple.
The main hold up for mobile payments is that not all retailers that take debit and credit cards accept device payments. However, most major retailers are on board. Mobile payments mostly for offline products and services remains a minority use case for now. However, with time it will gain momentum, especially with younger users. The most important thing is to not really have the merchants on board as much as the consumer. Mobile payment are good for both retailers and consumers in that they are convenient and secure.