Google has announced that it is merging or unifying all of its various payment solutions into a single brand, called “Google Pay.”
The company said it would rename its Android Pay mobile payment platform and its Chrome web browser credit and debit card storage technology under the single umbrella, meaning Android Pay and Google Wallet will cease to exist as separate apps and services.
According to reports, this is Google’s fifth payment brand. Google Checkout was Google’s PayPal competitor, giving Web vendors a payment processing solution and customers an easy way to bring over their credit card and address data. Google Wallet was the first NFC payment system for smartphones, and later it was rebranded to Android Pay with the Wallet sticking around as a P2P payment system. Android Pay is currently Google’s primary payment brand.
There’s also “Google Tez,” a payment brand in India, which lets users pay bills from companies directly from a bank account in addition to P2P and other payment modes.
Pali Bhat, Google’s vice president of product management and payments said: “With Google Pay, it’ll be easier for you to use the payment information saved to your Google Account, so you can speed through checkout with peace of mind. Over the coming weeks, you’ll see Google Pay online, in store, and across Google products, as well as when you’re paying friends.”
He added: “Google Pay addresses one of the biggest barriers to mobile commerce today – the inconvenience of entering card details. We know that form-filling is one of the biggest frustrations for mobile shoppers, causing more than a fifth of us to abandon purchases. This new service is designed to automatically retrieve payment details from the Google ecosystem, reducing checkout to a couple of clicks.”
