Google’s Android Pay set for UK debut next month
Google is all set to debut its Android Pay transactions service by the end of March in the UK as the search giant seeks to grab a slice of the fast growing mobile payments market.
From that point owners of Android enabled smartphones with built-in Near-Field Communications Technology (NFC) will be able to use their handset to make contactless payments following the successful launch of the service in the US last September.
Operating in a similar fashion to Apple Pay, which is already in widespread use around Britain, the new service will give Android users the same convenience by enabling them to load their Visa and Mastercard details.
From there all that needs to be done to make a payment is swipe the phone over a contactless payments terminal at a retailer, with identity verified by the smartphone’s fingerprint reader.
The burgeoning field of contactless payments services is set to expand further when Samsung Pay is released into the wild later on in the year as Britain becoming a proving ground for the technology courtesy of the high rate of adoption of the technology by consumers and retailers.