Pay With Google Launches To Speed Up Online Checkout
Despite the fact that services like Apple Pay and Android Pay make mobile checkout a brick and mortar stores a breeze, paying online using your mobile device can still be something of a headache. Recognizing this issue, Google set out to fix it by introducing its Google Payment API back in May. Now that developers have had about five months to implement this API, Google is rolling out a new service called – what else? – "Pay with Google."
In essence, Pay with Google is a lot like Android Pay for online checkout. Indeed, Pay with Google taps into Android Pay to pull up card information you have stored with it, but it doesn't stop there. Pay with Google also pulls any card information that's associated with your Google account, whether it's stored with the Google Play Store, YouTube, or Chrome.
In doing so, Pay with Google allows you to pay with any card you have stored regardless of the platform you're using to make your purchase – mobile or web. Checking out using Pay with Google seems pretty straightforward as well – simply tap the "Pay with Google" button you'll see pop up during checkout, then you'll be asked to confirm the Google account and the card you want to pay with.
Once you've selected the card you want to use, Google will send your payment information and your shipping address to the vendor, cutting down on the forms you need you fill out. Since filling our forms with addresses and payment information can be particularly frustrating on a mobile device, we imagine that Pay with Google will find a lot of happy users.
Since Pay with Google relies on the Google Payment API, vendors have to implement it on their websites before you can use it. Because of this, the number of vendors that support Pay with Google is limited here at the start, but some familiar names like Doordash, Instacart, and Kayak already support it. Google promises that more vendors are coming online soon, with big names like Airbnb, Papa John's, and StubHub on that particular list.
Just as well, Google says it's got a decent amount of payment providers on board already, with more being added "all the time." Check out the Google Blog for more, including links to the Google Payment API so you can implement Pay with Google within your own service.