Google Augments Mobile Apps with Android Pay

December 21, 2015         By: Steven Anderson

Android Pay has been something of a lesser note in the mobile payments market, flooded under a host of competitors from the brand-specific tools like Apple Pay and Samsung Pay to the business-specific apps for Starbucks, Dunkin’ Donuts and a host of others.

Google may have a plan to help cut through the clutter, however, and it’s already starting up.

Now, Android Pay can be used within mobile apps, as a means to make a payment right at the mobile app level.

This opens up Android Pay to a variety of very popular services, from Lyft to Wish to Hotel Tonight. What’s more, this is just the beginning; the service is set to hit several more over the next few months, and Google’s even going so far as to offer discounts for those who use the payment system therein; DoorDash users get $10 off, and those on their first Lyft ride get likewise.

OpenTable diners get $20 off, and Vinted shoppers get 30 percent off.

Some of the biggest apps around will be getting the Android Pay support in months to come, including such major names as Groupon, NewEgg, Priceline, GrubHub and Uber. Just to top it off, Google is set to bring Android Pay to Australia starting in the early days of 2016.

Several banks have agreed to work with Google on this, and that’s going to add to the support Google’s already seeing in the region from places like Telstra, Pizza Capers, and Brumby’s Bakery.

This is the kind of move that may well pull Android Pay forward.

For some time now, one of the biggest problems it’s faced is its sheer competition. With other competitors proving more adept at use in stores, it was easy to wonder what place Android Pay would have when seemingly every other Android phone maker was getting into the market itself.

Why have Android Pay when Samsung Pay or LG Pay would do the job? Now, it becomes clearer; that app connection may have just taken Android Pay from a comparatively superfluous also-ran to a perfectly viable alternative.

We all know that users only want to use a couple apps tops, but if Android Pay integrates itself into the apps directly, that increases the chance it will be used, since it doesn’t require the use of a separate app. With the app economy being what it is, and appealing so thoroughly to the millennial users, it may have just found a niche market that it can hold for the foreseeable future.

Android Pay has no shortage of competitors taking it on in the field, but with this new move in the app field, its new niche may be just the right one.