Pay with Google officially released into the wild

Back at Google IO 17 Google announced a new online payment system “Pay with Google”. The service was fairly basic, when you’re trying to check out in an app or mobile website in Chrome you would have the option to Pay with Google.

Today that service has gone live across several apps and websites internationally, including Australia if the inclusion of Deliveroo and Guzman y Gomez is any indication. The developer documentation does make mention of Tokenised payment being an option however we weren’t able to determine when tokenised payments would be used and when encrypted details would be sent.

Unfortunately, this doesn’t appear to be a 100% tokenised financial transaction, according to Google they will “send the merchant your payment info and shipping address using the information from your account…..then, the merchant will handle all the details just like any other purchase”. Hopefully more details around tokenisation will emerge in time.

Any credit or debit payment methods you’ve added to any of Google’s payment sites such as Android Pay, Google Play, YouTube, Chrome or Android Pay will be accessible via the new service. Users only need tap on Pay with Google option to have all of their details sent to the merchant.

Launch partners include online vendors such as Doordash, Postmates, Instacart and Wish to name but a few. Coming soon partners include some slightly more Australian relevant partners including Deliveroo, Guzman y Gomez and Airbnb.

If you run your own website and want to add in Pay with Google you can check out the development documentation over at Google’s developer page. Alternatively if you use a 3rd party payment processor check out the list below of current and future partners for Pay with Google.

To make use of the new system users must have Google Play services 11.4.x or above installed on their device and for mobile web uses also be using Chrome M61 or above. Depending how quickly partners integrate Pay with Google you may soon start seeing the Pay with Google option pop up when you shopping online or in an Android app. Let us know if you spot a Pay with Google option Downunder.