Android Pay, unveiled at the Google developers conference in San Francisco, brings together mobile carriers, payment networks, banks and retailers to allow smartphone users to use their handsets instead of payment cards.
Google engineering vice president Dave Burke said Android Pay would work in more than 700,000 US retail outlets that accept contactless payments. Similar to the Apple Pay system unveiled last year, Android Pay will allow consumers to store credit card information on their handsets along with loyalty cards and other data. For extra security, Android Pay will generate a one-time “token” or virtual account number so the actual credit card data is not revealed in a transaction.
Fingers and wrists
Google announced on Thursday that the coming version of Android will support fingerprint checking features built into mobile devices, which would match the feature built into Apple’s latest iPhones for security.
Apple Pay also works with Apple Watch, letting wearers’ essentially pay with waves of wrists. The Android team gave no indication if their new Pay feature will extend to smartwatches. Android Wear director David Singleton said Google is partnering with an array of hardware makers to add to the current line-up of seven different kinds of Android smartwatches.
Fun, functional or hip applications made by the kinds of software wizards are seen as vital to the popularity of smartwatches and smartphones……..
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