Good news, Android fans: Android Pay is finally coming soon to the UK, six months after it debuted in the United States. The rollout is scheduled to begin within the end of March, according to a report in The Telegraph, breaking Apple Pay’s seven-month uncontested hold of the UK market.
How it works
Like its Apple equivalent, the Google contactless payments service will let you pay for goods and services using your phone at shops, restaurants and other businesses. You don’t need to open an app, either — just unlock your phone and put it near a contactless terminal to pay.
Some retailers can even track loyalty points and offer discounts through Android Pay payments, which is pretty sweet. You can also use Android Pay to pay for in-app purchases, from digital loot to Uber fares. We’ll know more about which British companies will support the service once it’s been officially announced, although you can take a look at Google’s US partners at the Android Pay website — it includes Foot Locker, McDonalds, Subway, Whole Foods and many more.
The service will likely be restricted to phones running a recent version of Android (potentially 6.0 Marshmallow), and will probably require a fingerprint scanner for authentication. These features have become more common on high-end phones over the past year, but it’ll take some time for them to be featured on the majority of Android phones sold in the UK. For the immediate future then, Android Pay will only be available on higher-end devices.
Competitors
Google’s competitors have already made moves towards the UK market. Apple Pay has already gone live in the UK, and Samsung announced their Pay service will roll out later this year. It should be interesting to see how each service carves out a niche in the market, particularly as Samsung Pay’s users could all instead choose to use Android Pay. Either way, consumers should welcome the option to pay by phone for its convenience, speed and easy tracking of transactions.
Signing off
If you can’t wait for the launch of Android Pay, when not check out our selection of Galaxy S7 Edge wallet cases? Paying by cash or card might not be as cool as using Android Pay, but it sure beats not being able to pay at all!
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Android Pay requirements are 4.4+ (because this is when Host Card Emulation was implemented) and NFC. The banks won’t mandate a fingerprint reader – because it’s no less secure than Chip n Pin which only requires a Pin code. Without a fingerprint – Android pay lets you authenticate the transaction with a Pin code or an unlock pattern.