Google Rolls Out Google Pay, Integrated Payments In India

Google for India recently launched new features and updates to several products, including enhancements to Google Assistant, Pay, Lens and Search, Android Central reported on Thursday (Sept. 19).

India is an important market for Google, with Android users making up of 98 percent of smartphone users. Google said it handles 918 million transactions a month in India.

Google rolled out Hindi and eight other languages to Google Assistant and made it easier to switch between languages. NFC card payments are being added to Google Pay. Google also introduced its Spot platform, which “bridges the division between offline and online.”

India will be instrumental in AI development, according to Google. Aside from establishing an AI lab in Bangalore, Google is using AI to forecast floods, a big problem during the monsoon season.

The Google Station project now offers free public Wi-Fi at over 400 railway stations across India — and more locations are being added, the article said.

Google continues to use India as a test market for a variety of different services and app updates. Other recent updates include a Google Map partnership with the India-based table reservation platform EazyDiner to display discounts. Google Maps in India will also include an “offers” options located in the explore tab. Offers from over 4,000 local restaurants will be displayed and are currently live in 11 of India’s major cities. The app interface has also made it easier for users to navigate quickly when searching for restaurants, ATMs, shopping, hotels and pharmacies.

“For You” tabs will display personalized restaurant recommendations to users in Google Maps. According to executives at Google, this feature can recognize not just what millions of consumers have said about the quality of a restaurant but compares that information to a user’s own reviews, further personalizing the in-app experience.