This new mobile payment platform was designed to boost virtual and real-world purchases in a single interface, simplifying the transaction by making it happen within applications.
Android Pay leverages Host Card Emulation (HCE) gcash database technology, which emulates debit and credit cards with software using the NFC protocol.
Mobile payments will become one-touch transactions and will allow any business to adopt Android Pay. In other words, Android will allow brands to incorporate a mobile payment option into their apps.
The emergence of this platform is not expected to eliminate Google Wallet, a Google payment service that allows users to store payment information, transaction history, and other things. “Google Wallet, for example, can be a client of Android Pay (…) We feel comfortable with continuous innovation,” said Google senior vice president and head of Android, Sundar Pichai, during the first day of the Mobile World Congress 2015 (MWC15) in Barcelona.
This innovation aimed specifically at mobile devices is expected to be officially announced in May at the upcoming annual developer conference, Google I/O 2015 , although Pichai has already confirmed that this mobile payment solution will be launched soon.
If announced in May, it is unknown whether Android Pay will be available for immediate integration or will be launched as a closed beta.
Platforms from other companies
This mobile payment platform competes with Apple Pay, which remains exclusively in the US market (it is expected to arrive in Europe in April).
Meanwhile, at MWC15, Samsung revealed that it is joining the race for first place in mobile payments, with the announcement of its own platform called Samsung Pay, something that had been coming since the acquisition of LoopPay was announced in mid-February.
Samsung Pay is part of the company's new offering. That is, the mobile payment application will be built into the Samsung Galaxy S6 and S6 Edge phones.
