It’s merry time for Android smartphone users as now all of them will have an access to Android Pay, that is equivalent of NFC payment via your smartphone. The announcement was made on the official blog for Android.
To put it in an easy and more understandable manner, Android Pay is Google’s mobile equivalent of Apple Pay. However, there is a little tweak here as Apple Pay is currently integrated with Touch ID, and it only works with iPhones that have NFC. Thus, iPhone 5S and older than that, don’t get to do NFC payment. You just have to tap the Phone on the NFC payment reader, available only for certain retailers and opt for the payment method desired by you – whether it be credit, debit or even your cashless wallet for certain merchants. However that depends on whether Android or Apple has any partnership with these wallets.
With the use of the cardless and cashless NFC mobile payment you can ensure the security between the paying party and the merchant as both Android Pay and Apple Pay doesn’t release your card details to the merchants you shop at.
Lest you are into app development and keep on adding Android Pay support to your app, then here is the Android Pay API site for developers.
As of now Android Pay is available only in the US, while Australia will get the functionality in the first half of 2016. This way, more countries will get to use Android Pay as 2016 goes by. Meanwhile, Google is working with several of financial institutions to bring various payment options on-board the pay-by-NFC service. At the same time, Apple Pay is planning to enter in Singapore by 2016.
