Paytm has started working on a facial recognition tool to enable digital payments. According to The Economic Times, the company plans to expand the feature so that customers are able to pay for merchandise in — literally — the blink of an eye, which could boost the overall security of the app.
“We have already started testing the face recognition tool among our employees. Once live, Paytm users will be able to log into the app by simply looking at the phone,” said a senior Paytm executive who wished to remain anonymous.
The facial recognition feature is being tested out on Google’s Android platform, and sources say it will officially launch soon through an app update.
“We are currently working on several initiatives that will help us to take our services to users in every nook and corner of the country, who are still learning to use smartphones,” said Deepak Abbot, senior vice president at Paytm.
The unnamed Paytm executive added that the company is also developing additional security features to deter fraudsters.
“We will be checking for the eye white, which is a recognition of whether a person is alive or dead. We will also make the customer blink once to show he or she is alive,” the executive said. “As of now, we are restricting it to opening the app, but the future will see much more use cases.”
The news comes as Paytm is fighting for payments dominance in India by expanding its services and relying on its regional expertise. Already India’s top digital payments firm, Paytm is expanding into banking, mutual funds and eventually insurance.
Paytm has 95 million monthly active users (MAU) to date, growing by 5 percent to 6 percent month on month. There are plans to reach 500 million users by 2022, and to boost its offline merchants to 15 million by March 2019 from its current 9 million.
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