Using our smartphones, we can also pay for goods and services. All thanks to mobile payment services. One such service provider is Android Pay developed by Google. Both Android smartphones and Android Wear-based smartwatches are compatible with Android Pay.
What is the History of Android Pay:
In 2015, Google launched Android Pay at its I/O developer conference. It was officially announced on September 11, 2015, in the U.S. Being designed to be a fully mobile payment system, the Android Pay is used to purchase goods and services online in the real world. Banks and other financial institutes of several countries including the UK, Canada, Ireland, Poland, Singapore, Australia, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Belgium, Japan, Russia, and New Zealand supports Android Pay as a payment method. Google Tez or Google Pay is a recently launched payment service by Google. Having a huge market in India, Google Pay worked with the Indian government’s Unified Payment Interface (UPI) for mobile transactions.
How does Android pay work?
A near field communication (NFC) technology is used by Google’s payment system on supported smartphones and smartwatches. On the Android Pay account, the debit or credit card information of the user is stored. To pay for goods or services, the user needs to take its phone or watch and place it near the retailer’s point-of-sale (POS) terminal. From the phone or watch a signal sends the payment information to the POS terminal through NFC hardware.
How to set up the Android Pay app on our phone?
If your bank or financial institute supports it, we can use Android Pay on our smartphone as a payment service. For this, we need to first download the Android Pay app from Google Play Store. After the installation, we need to tap on the app and then hit the “+” sign. We can now add a debit or credit card information to the supported bank. If we purchased an item via Google in the past, it is likely to have our debit or credit card info already available in the Android Pay app.
How to set up the Android Pay app on our smartwatch?
The smartwatch with Android Wear 2.0 installed, can be used to pay for goods and services via the Android Pay app. For this we first need to set up Android Pay on our smartwatch. Tap on it, to view the option to add a new card. Once the security code is entered which is sent to our mobile, the Android Pay app is ready to be used on our smartwatch.
How secure is Android Pay?
Instead of the personal info and card of the user, a randomly generated 16-digit number is sent to the NFC terminal, when the user uses their phone or watches to send a payment using the Android Pay app. This is to ensure that our financial information will be safe, even if the terminal or store we used is hacked. Also, for more protection, the generated random number is stored in a cloud server, instead of our phone. To send a payment via Android pay, the respective phone must be working and unlocked. Thus our account is safe if the phone is locked and not in use.
Where does Android Pay is supported and what banks use it?
Android Pay is supported in several countries including the UK, Canada, Ireland, Poland, Singapore, Australia, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Belgium, Japan, Russia, and New Zealand and many other countries are on the path to add this service. Also, the banks and financial institutions which support Android Pay for each country are continuously changing and expanding.