Android Pay Listing Released Early

As everyone awaits the rumored launch of Android Wear 2.0, customers might have gotten an early glimpse of the Android Pay application that will be running on the wearable operating system.

9to5Google reported that the Android Pay listing in the Google Play Store has been updated early, showing screenshots of the app that will run on Android Wear. The launch of Android Wear 2.0 is expected to be announced this week.

One of the most anticipated changes to the wearable system will be its ability to work independently from a user’s smartphone. And although some apps — like Android Pay — will need a data connection to work, the LG Watch Sport, which is rumored to be a part of this week’s big announcement, should have its own LTE data collection.

Using Android Pay, wearables with NFC chips will allow users to pay for items directly from their wrists. The three images leaked on the Google Play Store walk customers through the process of picking a credit card to use for a purchase and successfully completing a transaction after holding it up to an NFC terminal. The automated receipt then comes after the payment has been processed.

According to Tech Radar, the new system should mean that a user can check out past payments directly from the watch, so there’s no need to use a smartphone to check on how much was spent. The application also has a simpler and smaller interface than the one on phones, which still displays the user’s card and asks them to hold the device toward the payment terminal.

The LG Watch Urbane, Asus ZenWatch 3 and the Sony Smartwatch 3 all feature NFC, so there is hope that those models will be upgraded to Android Wear 2.0 as soon as possible.