Commonwealth Bank customers are today rejoicing as the bank has begun seeding their Host Card Emulation based NFC ‘Tap & Pay’ payments functionality to the CommBank app on Google Play.
The Commonwealth Bank is the first of the larger establishments to offer wider support of NFC ‘Tap & Pay’ on mobile phones. The Tap & Pay function is being introduced in their CommBank app from Google Play. The Tap & Pay function is enabled by Host Card Emulation, a feature released by Google in Android 4.4, which allows for the NFC chip to be used, without the requirement to host sensitive data in the Secure Element within the card.
The Commonwealth Bank has been playing around with NFC based payments for sometime, even trialling an NFC based case for iPhone users allowing them to use the ‘KaChing’ app to Tap & Pay. They launched a new Tap & Pay system in 2013, which involved applying an NFC enabled sticker to the rear of your phone but this expanded functionality for Android users running KitKat or later is much more convenient – and more importantly doesn’t involve sticking something to your phone.
The app with the new functionality will be seeded to users in a staged rollout through Google Play, with 20% of users already receiving the updated app, and plans to have 50% of users offered the new app by Monday. The What’s New section of the CommBank Google Play entry describes the update – which appears to also include a widget :
Make Tap & Pay payments using your phone’s NFC (for compatible phones on Android 4.4 or above. Payments from eligible transaction accounts only, not available for credit cards at this time). Also set up a widget for quick access to Tap & Pay
The app is working, though there seems to be reports of an issue with disabling and then re-enabling Tap & Pay, with a number of users.
If you’re a Commonwealth Bank user, with a phone running Android 4.4, this is pretty exciting. Head on over to Google Play now to check and see if the update is seeding for you now. Now to see where the other big Aussie banks are at with NFC based payments for Android.
Edit: It’s something to note that only Tap & Pay for Debit Cards is supported at this stage, with Credit functionality still to arrive. We’ll be speaking with CommBank next week regarding the Tap & Pay feature and hope to bring you more information soon.
Westpac already has a superior version of this for Android doesn’t it? If you have the bank’s mobile app and a card, it is automatically available.
Nexus 4 working fine.
No 3.7, still getting “order pay tag” prompt. N6 rooted
Used it to pay for my lunch and dinner today. Thank you for finally doing this Commbank.
Just updated then, it seems to be working, have yet to try it out but. It’s set up like a whole new virtual card with its own pin by the looks of it. Theres a new widget as well that takes you straight to the Tap and Pay screen, you just have to enter the virtual card pin; and since I’m using CM12s, to make it even easier, I’ve added the widget as a lock screen shortcut so all i need to do is swipe right from the lockscreen and it launches it
Great work CommBank, i was a bit concerned that we wouldn’t see any of the major banks consider rolling out HCE if they had spent all this time getting their current tech working.
Great to see this rolling out to more devices and people.. i hope to see westpac and others make the same move and get mobile payments out to devices beyond Samsung.
Well I have the update, but it fails to register at the point where I create a pin. I bet credit cards take at least a year to become an option. They probably can’t agree on something.
It worked the next morning, now to do some shopping.
So it worked at woolworths, but it’s less convienient than my wallet. First I still need to get my wallet out for my loyalty card, then I need to get out and unlock my phone, then start the app and enter the pin code.
As much as I want to, I won’t be leaving my wallet at home any time soon.
You can scan your loyalty bar-code and scan it off your phones screen. No Wallet required.
You mean take a pic of it with your Camera? Or is there a specific app you can use that holds barcode data?
Not for credit card? I only use credit card and you don’t support. This feature is nothing to me. Still waiting for Android pay.
Can someone with the APK please upload this to APKMirror for everyone else to benefit in?
+1, I dont want to wait until monday 🙁
Still being directed to the PayTag page on my Xperia Z3.
Still being directed to the PayTag page. I guess I’m not part of the 20%
I have received the update and can see the CommBank logo under Tap & Pay, however in the app I still get directed to buy a paytag. Nexus 4.
I’m on the nexus 4, and it still has the paytag screens showing.
My Nexus 4 got the new app this morning and I could register it to my debit account. Time to try it out.
That’s been there for months.
Damn time delay android updates. Anyone have the 3.7 apk?
Wohoo ! Now just for credit cards and I can ditch my wallet
I can’t get this to work on my Nexus 5 (Lollipop), it just asks me to order a PayTag for $2.99.
I’ve got a stock lollipop rom, but I am rooted. I tried unrooting and a reboot, but that isn’t helping. I’ve got the latest version of CBA app (4th March)
the 4th of March update is version 3.5.1. You need version 3.7 that was released on the 5th of March – so patience, we’ll all have it by Monday.
We are the 20%
APKMirror that now!
I hosted it on Google Drive. Check the comments in the Ausdroid Google+ Community page post.
There’s also no widget in the 3.7.0 update, which kinda sucks.
Link?
I can’t find your link on the G+ post. Would you kindly link it here?
Very keen for this
How do I get the APK?
Shame shame shame ANZ
Indeed. They are about to lose a customer once I can get signed up with CBA!