Contactless payment systems like Android Pay on phones are becoming increasingly popular. So much so, that users have been asking to have the same technology on other devices, more specifically on wearables such as smartwatches. Although many expected the feature back in 2014, it seems that only now Google is seemingly starting to ready its software for this technology.
Android Police has issued a report based on the evidence discovered in the files of applications packages of Google Play Services 10.0 on Android. According to them, there are several strings of text and code that contain words like “tap and pay”, and other similar information. This means that Google might be in the last stages of development of a functional Android Pay for smartwatches.
This information matches closely with the leaked smartwatches from Google. Although the devices weren’t rumored to have NFC technology which is necessary for Android Pay, there is a good chance we’ll see the contactless payment system on the upcoming watches.
If you’re really want to start making contactless payments with your Android watch before the majority will adopt the feature, you can do so if you have a Samsung Gear S3 watch and a Samsung Pay account as well. Samsung pay is available on any Android device running on KitKat 4.4 or newer. Samsung made its payment app available for other brands of watches as long as they use the Tizen OS. Apple Watch users have been able to use a similar feature for well over a year now.
Google hopes to revitalize smartwatch sales with its upcoming Android Wear 2.0 operating system available on a large variety of brands. Among some of the new features coming to Android, smartwatches is Instant Apps. The feature was previously announced at Google I/O in 2016. It allows users to try out an app without actually installing it. The Android Police report shows that the app might be tested in the wild, although no sightings were reported. In any case, this means that Instant Apps is close enough to a public release.
Are you eager to use Android Pay on smartwatches? What do you think about the Instant Pay feature?
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