We have recently been hearing rumors that Google is looking to revamp its payments service. For that purpose the company recently confirmed the acquisition of Softcard, a deal which will also see Google Wallet being pre-loaded on devices by major U.S. carriers, while it is also said to be working on a totally new project that will help expand its presence in brick and mortar locations across the country.
According to a report by Ars Technica Google is going to unveil a new payment platform called Android Pay at the I/O 2015 conference this summer. The new platform is said to be geared towards mobile devices and will allow third party apps to enable virtual and real world transactions through one interface.
For a seamless experience the platform will allow transactions to be completed in third party apps, however Android Pay will support tap-and-pay transactions using Host Card Emulation and NFC, like Wallet currently does. This will go a long way in simplifying transactions as users won’t have to switch between apps to complete payments.
This doesn’t mean that Google Wallet will bite the dust. When there’s no support in a third party app Google Wallet will step in to fill the gap.
So far Google has neither confirmed nor denied this report.
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