The mobile pay movement is growing. We all know about Apple Pay. Recently, Google announced Android Pay. And that’s just the beginning.
Google’s Android Pay was a main event topic at an I/O developer’s conference in San Francisco. In one session, Google Ad and Commerce chief Sridhar Ramaswamy revealed the Hands Free mobile payment option. It’s a payment option where you don’t even take your wallet, or your phone out of your pocket. The Android user gives a command in a store like “I want to pay with Google.” While the Droid device stays out of sight, the cashier presses a button on the payment terminal to process the payment. Sound strange? Google plans to test Hands Free at major eateries like McDonalds and Papa Johns throughout San Francisco in the months to come. Ramasqamy insists it’s a Hands Free is in it’s early prototype stages. A Google colleague said Hands Free and Android Pay are two separate entities and use two different technologies. Check out this You Tube promotion?in which people struggle with every other method of payment, that is until a mother says “I want to pay with Google” and leaves the store. Will it be that simple?
This could be a direct challenge and threat to rival Apple Pay. I emphasize could be. I’m not very convinced this will work. Hands Free sounds more like a scene from Star Trek than actual reality. How is the command going to be processed? Who is going to process it? In the months to come, I’d love to see these tests at McDonalds and Papa John’s. Then I might be a little convinced. I hope Apple doesn’t copy this move. If I were Apple, I would wait to see if Google falls on their face with this one. Am I being too cynical about No Hands?