Apple Pay made a huge splash when it was introduced with the iPhone 6. The new service, which is designed to replace credit cards as the go-to option for making purchases at physical locations, was met with wide approval. Major chains like McDonalds and Walgreens support the new feature , which has helped to increase its success. However, Google is not ready to be pushed out of this new marketplace without a fight. The competition between Apple and Google continues to heat up with the addition of Android Pay and a new service by Google, “Google Hands Free,” which is designed to make payment even easier.
Android and Apple Pay both work under the same paradigm: a user pays by tapping or waving their phone over a device that has a wireless sensor inside it. Google Hands Free, on the other hand, takes even the physical act of pulling out a phone out of the equation. A consumer would tell a cashier that they would “like to pay with Google,” then the transfer happens when the cashier presses a button. Google has not yet revealed how exactly this concept would work, but it would likely involve a concept called Geofencing.
Even this could become a relic of the past soon.
What is Geofencing?
Geofencing may be the next evolution of mobile payments in general. Other online retailers such as Square and Paypal have been working with this technology since 2011, according to Ars Technica. This software, essentially, allows retailers to instantly know when a customer has entered a specific establishment. As a consumer passes through the terminals or front doors of a given building, the store picks up the customer’s picture and card information, which is brought up when they tell a clerk that they want to pay with Google or another similar service. This service could potentially make it much harder for fraud to happen, as a human element would be required to verify that a user looks like his or her picture.
“Android and Apple Pay both work under the same paradigm.”
Apple as of yet has no real way to counter this strategy by Google. It may be the perfect answer to the current dominance of Apple Pay. The strategy here is that Google would use Android pay to stay current with Apple, and then convince retailers to support their Hands Free platform, which would be even better for certain situations. A drive-thru, for example, would be much more convenient this way, because clerks and customers would not have to pass a phone between them.
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