Following its launch this fall, Google’s Apple Pay rival known as Android Pay is taking another notable step this morning: it’s now available to use within mobile applications. According to the company, Android Pay will initially be available as an alternative means of checking out and paying for goods and services in a number of apps in the U.S., including shopping apps like Jet, Spring, and Wish, as well as on-demand services like Lyft, Instacart, and Doordash, plus big names like Hotel Tonight and OpenTable, and more.
These are only the first of what Google says will soon be many applications that roll out support for the technology in their own apps over the course of the next few months – indicating that Google already has a pipeline built, even if not everyone was ready to support Android Pay on launch day.
In addition, the company is encouraging consumers to try Android Pay with discounts in select apps being used as an incentive. For example, you’ll be able to take $20 off on OpenTable dining, $10 off your first Lyft, $10 off DoorDash and 30% off Vinted.
Other apps supporting the technology as of today include Fancy, Handy, Houzz, JackThreads, ParkWhiz, Printicular, SpotHero, and Vinted.
An earlier lineup Google published also mentioned apps like Eventbrite, Groupon, GrubHub, NewEgg, Priceline, Seamless, and Uber, among others, as being in the works.
Similar to Apple Pay, Android Pay in apps is designed to solve one of the larger challenges with shopping on mobile – having to enter your personal and payment data on your mobile device’s small screen. Instead of having to type in your name, address, and pulling out your credit card to check out, you can instead just tap the new “Android Pay” button in the app. After doing so, a screen will pop up where you can confirm your information, then tap “Continue” to complete your purchase.
In addition to the rollout of Android pay in apps, Google also announced that Android Pay is coming to Australia in the first half of 2016 in partnership with several of the country’s major financial institutions, including ANZ, Westpac and others. MasterCard and Visa will both be supported and the service will work at a variety of locations, like 7-Eleven, McDonald’s and Telstra. When it launches there, it will also offer support for in-app purchases, Google tells us.
The company also briefly mentioned Android Pay’s traction since launch, noting that to date “millions” of people had set up Android Pay and the “vast majority” are now using tap-and-pay on their devices. It didn’t, however, offer any specific details on the number of transactions the platform has seen. There are also over 1 million U.S. locations that support this means of checkout at point-of-sale, says Google – referring to NFC technology, which is also used by Apple Pay and Samsung Pay.
Google did not provide an ETA for when the technology would arrive in other countries, either at point-of-sale or within applications beyond saying that it would add more countries “throughout 2016.”