Rebranded Android Pay Gets Big Updates at Google I/O

Google Pay, which is the rebranded version of Android Pay, has been given a series of updates Google has confirmed. The search engine announced a raft of changes to the payment platform during its flagship developer conference, Google I/O which took place over three days this week in Mountain View, California.

The changes to the Android and app payment tool were revealed on the final day of the conference and give wide-ranging changes which app developers and app development businesses will be able to take advantage of.

The new features, which were outlined during a breakout session by the project manager lead at Google Play, Gerardo Capiel. Speaking at I/O he said, “In an upcoming update of the Google Pay app, we’re going to allow you to manage all the payment methods in your Google account – not just the payment methods that you used to pay in-store. And even better, we’re going to provide you with a holistic view of all your transactions – whether they be on Google apps and services, such as Play and YouTube, whether they be with third-party merchants, such as Walgreens and Uber, or whether they’re transactions you’ve made to friends and families via our peer-to-peer service.”

The main changes and updates to Google Pay include;

·The ability to make peer-to-peer payments within the main Google Play app. This function is being rolled out in the UK and USA.

·Online payment support for all browsers

·A single view of all payments and transactions made from a centralised location including in-store and app payments

·Boarding passes support

·Ticket support – this is already available with certain carriers including Singapore Airlines, Southwest in the USA and Eventbrite.

For developers, the revamped Google Pay also comes with the ability to incorporate the payment service into other third-party apps via an API.

Capiel outlined the benefits of this new possibility, saying “Via our APIs, we’re going to enable these ready-to-pay users [who already have payment information stored with Google Pay] to also checkout quickly and easily in your own apps and websites.”

The Google Pay app is now available to download in 18 territories worldwide. In total, the digital wallet has racked up an impressive 100 million downloads but this number is likely to increase substantially as Google has also confirmed plans for a much larger roll out of core functionality to other countries in the not too distant future.