Google Launches Google Pay, Sunsets Android Pay

Alphabet’s Google announced news on Monday (Jan. 8) that it is housing Android Pay and Google Wallet under one brand: Google Pay. In a blog post, Pali Bhat, VP of Product Management, Payments, at Google said that the company is bringing together all the different ways to pay with Google to make it easier for consumers.

“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,” wrote Bhat. “Over the coming weeks, you’ll see Google Pay online, in store and across Google products, as well as when you’re paying friends.”

Currently, Google Pay is already available on Airbnb, Dice, Fandango, HungryHouse, Instacart and other mobile apps and websites. Google is encouraging developers to do more with Google Pay. Bhat highlighted the company’s Payment Solutions site to learn how to implement Google Pay into websites and apps.

Google’s announcement comes as part of its push to make Google Pay available everywhere. In October, the company announced that online checkout would get faster with Google as mobile wallet. That news, built on a May announcement at Google I/O, its annual developers’ conference, gave consumers and developers a hint of how registered Google credentials can be used to pay across apps and devices. Users transact using credentials linked to their Google accounts, spanning Gmail, Google Play, YouTube and Chrome. For end users, a “Pay with Google” button lets them check out with any card housed in their Google accounts. The payments functionality comes via the API announced in May, which is now available to retailers and developers.

In an interview with Karen Webster at the time, Bhat said the announcement means “fast, easy and safe payments for Google users everywhere.” Pay with Google extends to anyone who has added a tokenized payment to their Google account and has added credit or debit cards to products like Google Play or Chrome. Bhat said users will now be able to start paying with Google “without any additional work.”