Google’s New Hands Free Payment App Starts Testing Soon

There was once a commercial for IBM’s radio frequency ID (RFID) systems that featured a young man in a sketchy-looking trenchcoat wandering around a store, picking up items and placing them in his coat.

When he left the store, he was confronted by a security guard. While most of us thought the next word would be something about shoplifting, the guard instead holds out a slip of paper, noting that the young man had forgotten his receipt.

Google may well have picked that ball up and run with it with a new mobile payment system testing out soon.

The “Hands Free” program, as it’s known, is currently only available at certain stores near Google’s headquarters, around the Silicon Valley area. A series of sensors, backed up by Bluetooth and Wi-Fi connectivity, can identify where the user is, and then provide infrastructure to make the payments.

Users just stop at a cash register and say “I’ll pay with Google,” then give the cashier their initials. A quick check of initials and a picture uploaded to payment accounts serves as security barrier.

The stores in question never get access to the credit card information underneath the Hands Free option, and users are notified when that system is used even if they were the ones to use it, as a further security measure.

The idea is reasonable, if perhaps somewhat unnecessary; are we so desperate for new payment systems that we can’t take a moment to grab our wallets, pull out cash or some other payment medium, and make payments?

While it’s certainly convenient for me, for example, to say “I’ll pay with Google, S.A.,” and carry on with the day, I’m not so put out by the notion of grabbing a wallet and handing over cash or activating a smartphone app. It almost seems like Google’s trying to solve the wrong problem here; mobile payments are already quite convenient as it is, and for Google to boil the process down even further is like trying to make hot chocolate sweeter. It sounds great, but why?

Still, Google has an interesting idea here, and one that might get some attention. This will be useful in the field of non-Samsung and non-Apple users who aren’t sticking to the walled garden.