Google Pay has been relaunched for both Android and iOS. In what could be the most comprehensive payments platform on the market, Google’s data enriched payments offerings will be a very ambitious service going beyond your standard tap-to-pay card-less functionality to become a one-stop-shop for all online payments needs.
The latest version of the app will offer three tabs encompassing three different functionalities.
The center tab “Pay” amalgamates Google Pay’s existing peer-to-peer payments and tap-to-pay services while offering more information and more functionality than before. Social media-like chat rooms facilitate individual or group payments while tap-to-pay receives a make-over offering simplified “get gas” or “get food” buttons that enable users to pay for these services digitally with partnered suppliers.
The “Insights” tab offers Google’s equivalent of apps like Mint and Simplifi, aggregating Google’s ability to process data with its algorithms to present financial information in one place, somewhat like analytics. The data reveals insights on all of a user’s connected cards and banking institutions, offering detailed reports on spending, savings, and bills. Receipts can be looked up easily and intelligently via Gmail or Google Photos.
The “Explore” tab is a place for Google to offer tailored deals and discounts to users, a truly new offering to the Google Pay services suite. Utilizing Google’s algorithms, a user’s transaction history will inform the app to ensure they see relevant offers. Users can only enjoy this option should they opt-in and grant Google access to use their data to show them deals. It has been shared that Google will not share this data with third parties or retailers. Deals can be purchased without having to enter promo-codes or card details as sales are processed via the cards linked on Google Pay.
While not all of these services are new for Google, this will be the first time they’re all unified in one place, enabling Google to be a direct competitor with the biggest apps and fintech services on the market. Where privacy is concerned, advanced features are all by opt-in only to grant Google permissions to the data. Google is also adamant that it will not share data with third parties.
Looking forward, Google also intends to partner with online banks to enable digital checking and savings accounts embedded within Google Pay.
