Android Pay Joins Hands With Visa And MasterCard: Here's What To Expect

By Jeff Thompson - 25 Oct '16 08:35AM

Android Pay has partnered with Visa and MasterCard, and that helps it to facilitate payments in thousands of websites that accept Visa Checkout or Masterpass. This is expected to make a big impact in the payments industry as the most used mobile platform Android and the most popular payment platforms Visa and MasterCard decided to join hands together.

Android Pay is a digital wallet platform and it is developed by Google in 2015 to enable retail and online payments through Android phones and other devices. It uses Near Field Communication (NFC) to securely transfer the payment details to the retailer. Instead of swiping Credit or Debit cards at POS, users can securely make the payments using the authentication mostly by fingerprint ID or Passcode in Android Pay, reports Google.

Since its inception, Android Pay couldn't make too much advantage in website payments considering that not all the websites were accepting Android Pay. Now, the things are getting a different turn and Android Pay is expected to be more popular in the coming years considering the number of smartphones working in Android OS. Google really wants people using Android Pay, reports CNET.

At this point of time, more innovations and competition can be expected in payment services considering Apple is already there with their digital wallet "Apple Pay". Even Microsoft and Samsung also trying to woo the customers with their digital wallet platforms Microsoft Wallet and Samsung Pay, cited from the press release.

Since users would look for secure payment options, the service provider who can provide the same will win the game. Considering the recent cyber-attacks, people may find Google platforms more secure as it has the support of large Google ecosystem including multiple servers, cloud network etc. Also being a consistent service provider, Google may outscore others.

Though the agreement has been made, users of Android Pay won't be able to use it immediately. The integration of platforms is expected to be completed by early 2017.