Android Pay Brings New Banks Under The Roof

Google’s take on NFC enabled wireless payments, Android Pay is making quite a stir these days. Android Pay is being used by millions of users despite of the fact that the former is only available in few countries. Started in September 2015 from United States, Apple Pay has now set its feet in three other countries including UK, Australia and Singapore. Android Pay now supports hundreds of banks with new banks being added every now and then. This steady expansion has led to the formation of a widespread network of stores where people can pay for goods and accessories using NFC enabled terminals installed by Android Pay.

The news recently arrives that Android Pay has now added another American bank, Chase to the family, thereby opening doors for the Chase users to make contactless payments using their smartphones. Chase happens to be one of the largest banks in the US and it’ll definitely help Android Pay to consolidate their network. By bringing Chase under the roof, Android Pay has rendered support for all the Chase Visa Cards including Freedom, Slate, Sapphire, United Mileage Explorer and Hyatt Credit Cards. So this was about the US. Then comes UK where the Android Pay has recently arrived. As per the speculations, two famous banks in the UK viz. Santander and TSB are going to be the next addition to the Android Pay family.

 

Also Read iPhone 7 Is Going To Support Bitcoin Payments.

 

What Exactly Is Android Pay?

Android Pay is a basically a digital wallet powered by Google that enables you to make contactless payments on select stores where NFC enabled terminals are installed. The mobile app for Android Pay boasts a powerful Tap-to-Pay feature for in-app purchases as well as all the offline purchases. Using Android Pay is also very easy and anyone can get used to it in no time. You just need to have an android powered smartphone or tablet with the android pay app installed in it. Even the android powered smartwatch works perfectly well for Android Pay.    

How It Works?

As you might already know, Android Pay makes use of Near Field Communication for making seamless contactless payments. It uses NFC technology to transmit card information to the payment terminal. In this way, it replaces the magnetic stripe of a credit/debit card which you usually swipe at the stores to make payments. This makes Android Pay a perfect replacement for traditional credit/debit cards which lets you make direct payments at various point-of-sale terminals. This payment scheme is known as Host-based Card Emulation or HCE.

In order to transfer card information to the Android Pay wallet, the users can either take a photo of the card or they can manually enter all the card information. You can pay through it just by holding your smartphone over the payment terminal in a way that it comes in direct contact with the point of sale of the terminal.

Android Pay vs Apple Pay

Apple Pay offers similar services and it has been in the market for a little too long. Apple Pay services were launched by Apple Inc. two years ago in October 2014 and Apple Pay is now available in more than 10 countries including US, UK, Japan, China, Australia and France. Although the services offered by the two are pretty much the same, the inconsistency arises when it comes to security.

Android Pay gives more importance to the physical security and so it uses fingerprint ID in the devices that come with fingerprint scanner. But in case you don’t have this feature in your smartphone, you can still activate your Android Pay Wallet and secure it using a password. Apple Pay on the other hand creates a dynamic security code for each and every transaction that you make. Apart from this, the procedure of making contactless payments is exactly the same in both Apple Pay and Android Pay. Android Pay requires Android OS 4.4 KitKat and above while Apple Pay supports iOS 8.1 and later. Due to this reason, Apple Pay is only compatible with iPhone 6/6 Plus, iPhone 6s, 6s Plus, iPhone SE and the latest release iPhone 7/7 Plus. However, iPhone 5s users can also use Apple Pay services but only in combination with Apple Watch 2.