Google to launch Android Pay

Google is finally ready to compete with Apple Pay with its own mobile payments system, dubbed ‘Android Pay'. Previous rumors suggested that Google would be launching its own mobile payments platform soon, which is now confirmed. This all comes shortly after we heard that Google was working with carriers to revive Google Wallet.

At the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona today, Google Senior Vice President, Sundar Pichai, said that Android Pay is not actually situated as a direct competitor to Apple's solution but rather an API layer that allows third-party device makers to build payment systems in to their own apps.

“We are doing it in a way in which anybody else can build a payments service on top of Android”.

Details are thin at the moment but Android pay apps will use NFC and will eventually support biometric sensors, such as Samsung's finger print sensor. Google Wallet is still making a comeback, with several US carriers set up to support it but it will be operating separately as its own mobile payment platform.

Android Pay doesn't have a launch date yet, it might not show up until the next version of Android, on the other hand it could also turn up in a future Lollipop update.

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KitGuru Says: Android Pay isn't set up to be Google's own mobile payments system but rather, an API to allow third parties to create their own and directly tie it in to the Android ecosystem.

Source: The Verge

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