23 ms·

Google Pay

303 points by dfabulich 9y ago

dfabulich 9y ago
Google's payment solutions are shockingly diverse. Google Checkout, Google Wallet, Android Pay, and now Google Pay. Checkout failed so they replaced it with Google Wallet; Wallet failed and they replaced it with Android Pay. The Google Pay API developer site https://developers.google.com/payments/ https://developers.google.com/payments/ has the audacity to call it "The newest way to pay with Google." I wouldn't be surprised to see yet another brand (and yet another API) within the next three years.
- r00fus 9y ago
  This. I mean, it takes lot of effort to keep up with Google's "throw it all on the wall and see what sticks" approach as a user. People chide Apple for not moving fast enough, but in many cases, being stable is more important than refactoring every 2 years.
- provost 9y ago
  Also, they have had Hangouts, Messenger, Talk, Voice, Allo, and Duo... most with the same functionality. What is up with Google's product management? Is there a strategy?
  - joekrill 9y ago
    Then they seem to randomly consolidate (I believe Hangouts was supposed to bring all that together, including SMS), only to do a complete 180 a few months later and split everything up again. I mean it's kind of absurd at this point.
    - ignoramous 9y ago
      I think the hangouts/duo/allo is a one-off, and that was because of Vic Gundotra loosing out?
  - mbesto 9y ago
    My understanding is that they effectively let these service duke it out to see which one survives and then choose that one.
    - ocdtrekkie 9y ago
      The problem is, most of these sorts of services work via a network effect. Especially chat: You use the one all your friends are using. Payment is the one that all your accounts and stores you go to support. Running a bunch of your own competitors is self-defeating when it ensures you don't have the network effect. Google Talk worked mostly because it was in Gmail, and everyone had Gmail. People who never used it had it, because Gmail.
    - yupyup 9y ago
      Darwinian Product Strategy? Quick, someone should register it and publish a book and make a career giving talks about it...
    - jaxondu 9y ago
      Feel the same. One example is Angular Typescript and then there is AngularDart, both are used by teams in Google.
    - gedy 9y ago
      Maybe that works for their internal politics, but not for the users. I've given up even trying new Google offerings
      - mbesto 9y ago
        Never said it was a good strategy ;)
  - nine_k 9y ago
    Hmm, what? I think e.g. Talk/Hangouts and Voice are radically different: one is about text messaging and video calls, another is about a connection to the "legacy" voice telephony network, with a dial-able number, etc. They started (long ago) form very different areas. They could have a seamless bridge between them, though. They sort of tried: you can dial a phone from Hangouts, but not back, or you can receive your Voice text messages in the email, but not send a reply back (afaict). Google is notoriously bad at cohesive product management. They have a number of bright ideas, but no visionary in the consumer product space, so apparently no coordination.
    - niftich 9y ago
      Google Voice was a rebrand of a product acquired in 2009. Google Talk was an XMPP chat service launched in 2005, and integrated into Gmail in 2006. "+Hangouts" was originally a feature inside Google Plus, launched in 2011, just like "+Messenger". 'Google Hangouts' was a 2013 launch to bring Talk, +Messenger, and +Hangouts into one product. This was further blurred by their various apps, which sometimes had differing functionality from the websites. The latest iteration of Google Voice has chat, for example, while SMS support inside the Hangouts Android App was removed on purpose and users told to use yet another app, first called Messenger, now called Messages. All their communication products suffer from convergent evolution, yet remain in dizzyingly varying states of integration with each other.
      - jyrkesh 9y ago
        I've had a miserable love-hate relationship with Google Voice for years, what do you mean by "the latest iteration of Google Voice has chat?"
        niftich 9y ago
        Announced in January 2017, the Android, iOS, and Web versions of Google Voice have a revamped UI and, apparently, text chat [1]; discussed on HN at [2]. [1] https://blog.google/products/google-voice/ringing-2017-updates-our-google-voice-apps/ https://blog.google/products/google-voice/ringing-2017-updat... [2] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13463940 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13463940
  - jonny_eh 9y ago
    You forgot Google Meet: https://meet.google.com/ https://meet.google.com/
    - weber111 9y ago
      Thanks for pointing that out! I had no idea it existed.
    - edaemon 9y ago
      Which is also branded as one of "Meet" [1], "Google Meet" [2], or "Hangouts Meet" [3], depending on where you go. [1] https://meet.google.com/ https://meet.google.com/ [2] https://www.google.com/search?q=google+meet https://www.google.com/search?q=google+meet [3] https://itunes.apple.com/US/app/id1013231476 https://itunes.apple.com/US/app/id1013231476
    - sorenjan 9y ago
      > Meet doesn't work on your browser > To join the video meeting > Install the current version of Google Chrome Google is the new Microsoft. Also, don't forget Google Spaces. Although you might as well, it lasted less than a year.
    - bradbeattie 9y ago
      And Spaces: https://get.google.com/spaces/ https://get.google.com/spaces/ Oh, that one's already gone. Why on earth would anyone jump on board a new Google product when they have the lifespan of fruit flies?
  - rwc 9y ago
    But you forgot Chat! They've held their Slack competitor announced nearly a year ago in EAP so long you wonder if the damn thing will ever see the light of day... https://gsuite.google.com/campaigns/index__chateap.html https://gsuite.google.com/campaigns/index__chateap.html
- kinkrtyavimoodh 9y ago
  And there's Tez in India and no one even remembers Handsfree
- revelation 9y ago
  And it's still only credit cards. Like how many iterations can you possibly have on CC processing. Add debit and then it becomes a lot more useful, but no.
  - desas 9y ago
    Odd, are you in the U.S.A? It's not debit card only in the UK.
    - vinay427 9y ago
      I believe GP was saying it was credit card only (no debit cards), or is that what you meant?
      - dbbk 9y ago
        I find it extremely hard to believe that it's credit card only. Debit cards are more popular in the UK.
  - criddell 9y ago
    Why would you choose debit over credit? I have a debit and credit card and only use the debit card when I absolutely have to.
    - stephenr 9y ago
      When you have actual money and dont want to pay interest?
      - criddell 9y ago
        If you have money, why aren't you paying your credit card bill on time?
        Doctor_Fegg 9y ago
        If I have money, why do I need a credit card? I’m guessing you’re American: much of Europe doesn’t bother with credit cards, myself included.
- tgb 9y ago
  Ars Technica calls this a "merge" of all those payments solutions. https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2018/01/google-rebrands-all-its-payment-solutions-as-google-pay/ https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2018/01/google-rebrands-all-...
  - ocdtrekkie 9y ago
    Written by a former Android Police writer, yes. It's unsurprising it comes with an optimistic bent.
    - eco 9y ago
      I'm not sure I would characterize it as optimistic. The subtitle is "Fifth Times A Charm!" and the bulk of it is talking about how many times Google has (mostly unsuccessfully) tried to make a product in this space. I find Ron Amadeo's articles are often much more critical of Google than others writing about them. If I were to summarize his attitude in much of his writing it'd be "Come on, you need to do better than this, Google." It's refreshing because normally writers who cover a particular company almost always view them through rose colored glasses and minimize all the mistakes.
      - ocdtrekkie 9y ago
        I have a generally positive view of Ron's work, but there's been some tragic missteps of late. This is a trashfire of a piece justifying incredible incompetence by Google[1], and suggesting a major vulnerability 'isn't a big deal': https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2017/11/pixel-wont-get-krack-fix-until-december-but-is-that-really-a-big-deal/ https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2017/11/pixel-wont-get-krack... [1]Google had months of notice under coordinated disclosure, and it took them a couple months after it went public for the fix to finally make it to Pixel devices (which is to say, most other Android devices still aren't patched). Since ROM authors fixed this in like two days, the fact that Google couldn't do it in five months is inexcusable. I actually suspect this may be part of why the Android Security Lead just shifted to a massively less important position at Google around the end of the year.
- debt 9y ago
  They're all trying to Venmo-ify payments. You run a balance on their platform and just pay with that. Tech companies are trying to become outright banks, but with none of the FDIC insurance or other safeguards that goes along with it lol. Innovation...
  - briandear 9y ago
    > They're all trying to Venmo-ify payments. Not all -- Apple Pay doesn't do the balance on their platform thing. https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT207886 https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT207886
- loeg 9y ago
  Huh, I still use wallet for P2P transfers. What do you mean by failed, and is it going away?
- nathancahill 9y ago
  Not to mention the various payment options for their services, which sometimes integrate with Wallet/Pay and sometimes don't.
27182818284 9y ago
Glad they're doing this. I found myself wondering just last week, "Do I want Google Pay or Google Wallet? Which is which? Can one hold my library card bar code?"
Talyen42 9y ago
Glad they've finally started to recognize app duplication as a problem for consumers. How many messaging apps does Google have again? I can't keep track.
- appleflaxen 9y ago
  and now there are n+1 payment options
- joekrill 9y ago
  I'm not sure they've recognized anything. They go through this consolidate-branch cycle pretty regularly with so many of their products.
Avery3R 9y ago
Sticky header and sticky footer. Only 60% of my screen is being used for the article content...
- lewapkon 9y ago
  You can hide the sticky footer by clicking at the button. The header hides itself when you scroll down.
  - Avery3R 9y ago
    Until you accidentally scroll down a little too much then scroll back up and the text you wanted to read pops up for a second before getting obscured
- yupyup 9y ago
  I think frontend designers should design with a 13" laptop and NO ADITIONAL MONITORS... only the laptop screen. Then you wouldn't see more designs like this one.
  - nottorp 9y ago
    There are some that seem to work like that. And then their site is a tiny thing lost in the middle of your 24" monitor... :) You.cannot.win!
anilshanbhag 9y ago
Across their diverse payment solution names, they actually have all the tech to build a Stripe competitor. Looks like they finally got their act together (hopefully!).
- atonse 9y ago
  Except I would trust Stripe a thousand times more than Google. Edit: trust them not to cross reference me to hell and track my every move. Security would be as good on either side.
  - amelius 9y ago
    And their CSS is better :)
  - marcosdumay 9y ago
    I would trust Stripe more to not cancel my account and forbid me from ever making/receiving money again. I also trust Stripe more to not disappear with my money on the process. Information security and capital security (they not declaring bankruptcy or running away with my money) are low enough to ignore for both.
- eagsalazar2 9y ago
  They could also take on Square by moving the "confirm, sign, tip, send receipt" aspect of Square (basically the entire interface) to the phone anywhere there is a payment system that takes tap to pay which more and more is basically everywhere. Unfortunately google doesn't agree and the actual payment experience is so shitty and limited it is a joke.
ballpark 9y ago
Hey Google, You got your fingers in too much of my life already. I'm going to avoid you also being my bank.
- ehsankia 9y ago
  G Pay is not a bank, it's payment processor like Stripe. They don't hold any money. Though you are right that this gives them information about what you're purchasing.
  - mynameisvlad 9y ago
    Well, it's not exactly a payment processor either. They're like a payment initiator. They funnel the payments through your processor in the end, according to their docs: https://payments.google.com/solutions/onboarding/ https://payments.google.com/solutions/onboarding/
drumhead 9y ago
They're not stupid, surely they must know that constant change and fragmentation of their products just weakens thier offer to the consumer? Whats their gameplan? Are they just throwing as much as they can against the wall to see what sticks, a survival of the fittest attitute to their apps?
- djaychela 9y ago
  From what I've read, that's always been the way the company operates. I read on here years ago that Google 'regularly cuts off its own limbs', and never seen it so succinctly put.
- askafriend 9y ago
  It's incredibly frustrating because if you look at something like their messaging strategy, it makes no sense. They come out with a new way to message people seemingly every year and then abandon it instead of building on their base and giving consumers the things they actually want.
- manigandham 9y ago
  In this case, it's a welcome consolidation of different existing wallet/payment products. All large companies seem to have trouble with branding as politics take over and each group wants to have its own spotlight. Apple arguably had better luck due to strong centralized leadership, although that's also become undone in recent years.
  - dfabulich 9y ago
    This is quite literally a consolidation in name only. "Google Pay" is a brand name for all of those products, not a unified API. Hopefully a unified product strategy will follow…
- kris-s 9y ago
  >They're not stupid And yet this blog page wastes ~1/3 of the vertical space with a top and bottom bar.
- 9y ago
amelius 9y ago
Their lack of customer service makes me cringe at the idea of paying through them.
- deleted 9y ago
  [deleted]
- jonknee 9y ago
  Eh, it's just a way to get your existing CC information to existing payment gateways without having to re-enter it. If you have a problem you would contact the company you're trying to pay or your credit card issuer, not Google. Pretty much like Apple Pay.
- dragonwriter 9y ago
  Never needed customer service for Android Pay or Wallet, but Google Express has excellent customer service.
- praneshp 9y ago
  For the only Google service I pay for (Project Fi), customer service is stellar.
  - eagsalazar2 9y ago
    Google in general has become pretty amazing at customer service. You can get someone competent on the phone 24-7 for Home also.
    - kinkrtyavimoodh 9y ago
      Yeah I think we can conclude that they are good at customer service if you are paying for the product. Good luck getting your blocked GMail unblocked if you weren't lucky enough to have the blog post detailing your story go viral.
  - netinstructions 9y ago
    Huh I had quite a miserable time with Project Fi customer service. Phone calls, emails and chat failed to resolve my issue. Only after countless Tweets / Reddit posts / Official Google product support forum posts that went on for nearly a week did I get lucky and finally talk to someone who could help me.[1] They gave me $50 off a month's bill at the end of all of it but it was such a frustrating ordeal. You couldn't pay me $500 to do it all over again. Their customer service is a joke. After spending time on their product support forums, I was far from alone. [1] http://www.netinstructions.com/what-the-heck-google-my-project-fi-and-pixel-2-woes/ http://www.netinstructions.com/what-the-heck-google-my-proje...
arkitaip 9y ago
You know what bothers me about giants like Google? They can absolutely suck at delivering an app or service for many years but because of their vast resources, they can keep throwing people and money at their projects until something sticks. Makes it very difficult for even very competent startups to compete against them.
zitterbewegung 9y ago
Are they trying to manage their projects with some kind of AI? Google works in mysterious ways and I don’t understand most of what they do outside of Google search.
- myaso 9y ago
  There is probably a lack of executive tlc to go around for all their stuff. I don't get it either, they break things that work already -- I simply cannot trust anything they put out that isn't search/Android/Google AI stuff anymore. Wasn't there some heuristic that a large company can only have 3 strategic priorities? Guess these 3 are it.
ecesena 9y ago
Will this work on ios? I’m using wallet and it would be great to continue using it.
orliesaurus 9y ago
I think I've only seen one person pay with Apple Pay in the last four years. It was at Walgreens. Maybe I'm missing something obvious but please do tell me HN readers do you use Apple Pay or Android pay at all ? and if you do use it how often every month?
- jefffan241 9y ago
  I use android pay whenever possible. I use it multiple times per month. I also use it when available in apps.
- ocdtrekkie 9y ago
  I have a credit card with an NFC chip built in. I enjoy swiping my wallet over the payment terminal and mystifying people at stores with what I just did.
- blhack 9y ago
  Huh. I use apple pay for probably half of purchases around Phoenix.
- wickedlogic 9y ago
  Every morning at breakfast. Maybe other places during the day.
- antimatter 9y ago
  I use Apple Pay regularly (multiple times per month) at Whole Foods, Trader Joe's, Starbucks and Coffee Bean. On more rare occasions when I do end up shopping for cloths in person, I've used it at department stores.
- Mister_Snuggles 9y ago
  In Canada, a lot of credit and debit cards are NFC-enabled. I discovered that the NFC-enabled payment terminals will take a payment via Apple Pay just as though it was a plastic card. I've only seen two businesses actually advertise that they take Apple Pay, but I've used it at countless businesses that don't advertise it.
- 9y ago
clhodapp 9y ago
Why did Google cut Android Pay out of Wallet if they were just going to do this? It's as if Google's consumer product teams all turn over every 2 years and each one reverses the vision of unity vs fragmented, specialized, self-competing products, executes their vision, and then leaves...
- dragonwriter 9y ago
  > Why did Google cut Android Pay out of Wallet if they were just going to do this? They didn't. Android Pay was a renamed of an acquisition that was originally planned to be integrated with Wallet but wasn't (well, until now), it just looked like it was cut out of Wallet because they killed Waller’s similar NFC payment functionality. From the fact that they now for a while have had “pay with Google” that can use cards from Wallet, Android Pay, and some other superficially siloed single-app payment systems at Google, I would assume they’ve actually finally integrated everything to use the same infrastructure as Android Pay, so now the siloes can go away.
  - clhodapp 9y ago
    Very interesting insight into what happened on the technical side! The progression of events certainly does make a lot more sense with that perspective, though understanding the details of what actually happened inside the backend doesn't really change the fact that, from a customer perspective, we really did see public-facing messaging indicating that one app was split into two and then later public-facing messaging indicting that (more than) those two apps where then brought back together again a couple years later.
- infogulch 9y ago
  More like each newly turned over product team always makes a https://xkcd.com/927/ https://xkcd.com/927/ decision, and only gets 80% through to completion before the next batch decides to do-over yet again.
brndnmtthws 9y ago
I might start caring about Google/Apple pay if they add support for Bitcoin and lightning network payments. Until then, there's really nothing new or innovative to be seen here.
- brokensegue 9y ago
  what lightning network?
- bpicolo 9y ago
  You ready to deal with paying capital gains tax every time you purchase something?
untog 9y ago
Forgive me, but isn't this what Google Wallet was, at one point? Then at some point Google Wallet was split out into Android Pay. And now it's Google Pay? It's made all the worse by the fact that these names/logos/etc are reflected on actual physical hardware distributed to stores around the world. Those old names aren't going anywhere soon. Google has done this so many times now (Hangouts/Allo/Messenger, anyone?) that I wonder if there is anyone behind the wheel any more.
- dragonwriter 9y ago
  > Forgive me, but isn't this what Google Wallet was, at one point? Not exactly, as it includes things that were never part of Wallet. > Then at some point Google Wallet was split out into Android Pay. And now it's Google Pay? Android Pay was a renamed acquisition that was originally intended to be merged with Wallet but was kept apart (but Wallet’s NFC payment feature was retired as Android Pay was brought online, which made it look like Wallet was being split up.) But Google Pay seems to merge in a number of other siloed app-specific Google payment features as well.as Wallet and Android Pay (these clearly have been integrated behind the scenes for a while, since their “pay with Google” feature leveraged payment methods you had registered through any of them or Wallet or Android Pay), so this looks like the UI and branding catching up with backend integration.
  - chauzer 9y ago
    What acquisition was Android Pay?
    - mattmcknight 9y ago
      I think they just purchased some patents from Softcard in 2015.
- trendia 9y ago
  The most Google thing to do would now be to deprecate Android pay, no longer support merchants who don't upgrade their point of sale systems, and provide no contact line for support.
sergiotapia 9y ago
Buyer beware. Your one Google account is trendils into everything. For example: I uploaded some clips of an old 90s show and got flagged for copyright. Now I can't upload/comment/sign into Youtube. How does this affect Google Pay? What about Google Domains? Bleh. I don't really like all-in-accounts anymore. Much rather have separate silo'd accounts.
- soared 9y ago
  Copyright claims don't affect a user's ability to login to their google account.. what are you talking about?
  - sergiotapia 9y ago
    Why would I lie about this lmao https://i.imgur.com/bB3CAcC.png https://i.imgur.com/bB3CAcC.png
- barrkel 9y ago
  Yup. Same reason I spread my risk with a bunch of Amazon products rather than stick to any one ecosystem. It's either that or abandon the whole system altogether.
- OkGoDoIt 9y ago
  I agree. Over a decade ago when I was a freshman in college I participated in an AdSense click ring with my dormmates. We made $200 or so each, which was cool at that age. Within a few months we got caught and banned from AdSense. Now I have a YouTube channel with tens of thousands of viewers but I can’t monetize it at all, even though YouTube wasn’t even part of the same company as AdSense when my silly freshman experiment went down.
  - dave5104 9y ago
    Not sure if this'll help your situation, but I did something equally dumb when I was back in high school. Clicked on my own ads, got banned from AdSense, etc. (Luckily, it didn't affect my other Google services at the time.) Recently, however, a Google AdSense sales rep reached out to me trying to sell me on AdSense. I explained the past situation and that I was "banned", but this sales rep was apparently able to get that lifted and get me back into the program. I never ended up using AdSense, but I now have an open account that isn't blocked anymore. Might help in your situation if you ever run into a Google sales rep.
eagsalazar2 9y ago
<WTF rant> - cards listed are only viewable as huge generic CC images and you can't customize either the image or even give it a name. Why this terrible skeuomorphic mess? I have different cards for different types of purchases and they all look identical and I have to scroll through them because they are huge. WTF? - When making payments there is no quick way to select which card you want to pay with. I'm pretty sure I'm not the only one who sometimes uses different personal cards, credit vs debit, or company vs personal. WTF?? - There is no user purchase validation step! I just swipe my phone and transaction is done. I get this is the same as using a CC but in theory there is such a huge opportunity to improve the experience. How about popping up a thing where I confirm the purchase, even add a tip or sign for some purchases? WTF??? - Pretty much zero updates for years. WTF google???? </WTF rant> Honestly any of these issue are almost deal breakers but I do use it mainly because I get a geeky thrill out of it still when it works. Are some of these limitations imposed by the CC companies and banks? Like Wells Fargo saying they'll only participate if Google uses the exact full size card image? Or is this just an example of insanely bad UX in a totally dysfunctional product team? I have no idea but the current app is mind-blowingly crappy.
- deleted 9y ago
  [deleted]
- freditup 9y ago
  > There is no user purchase validation step! I just swipe my phone and transaction is done. I get this is the same as using a CC but in theory there is such a huge opportunity to improve the experience. How about popping up a thing where I confirm the purchase, even add a tip or sign for some purchases? WTF??? I disagree with you here. I want the payment to be as fast and painless as possible. A "tip" screen, a "sign" screen, etc. would all be very annoying. I suppose adding these optionally somehow could work though. On a technical note, it's not quite the same as swiping a CC. There's some authentication to start - you must authenticate on your phone (via fingerprint or pattern or whatever lock mechanism you have) before you can make a payment. In addition, a one-time token is sent instead of your actual CC number, so the retailer couldn't reuse your payment info. In other words, it's much more secure than "signing" ever was and you get some nice security benefits by using your phone as opposed to swiping a credit card.
criddell 9y ago
Has Google said what they do with the information they collect when people use Google Pay? Does it get added to my profile? I don't see anything under "My Account" on the Google website.
pavanlimo 9y ago
Is it just me who read it as Google Play instead of Pay?
dvh 9y ago
For Google products please always put in the title if it is new product or discontinued product, thanks.
sevagh 9y ago
The toughest part of immigrating from Canada to the U.S. was figuring out the mess that was Google Play Store, Google Wallet, Google Payment Profiles, and Google Pay to get myself recognized as being in the U.S. and thus able to download U.S.-only apps.
- kyrra 9y ago
  (I work for Google payments, opinions are my own) I believe this process has been improved in the last year to more easily change your country. I'm not sure when you went through it, but understand that it can be a complicated problems due to different regulations for payment related activity and digital goods. Like some countries Google is required to verify your tax id with the government to even buy 99 cent app.
  - akkat 9y ago
    I can't compare it to how it was before but when I lived in my old country I bought something on Google play and now that I am in my new country I cannot download anything that is restricted to that country. There is no way that I can revert to how it was before I gave Google my credit card information. What I can do is give Google my new credit card information, but I don't want to do that simply to download a free country restricted app. What I ended up doing was making a new google play account and not purchasing anything through Google.
  - rndstr 9y ago
    I wasn't able to get my country changed after I somewhat accidently opened a merchant account years ago. I have never used that merchant account. It also didn't tell me that I won't be able to change my country if I open one. I've now been living in the UK for six months and three months ago I had a 3hr phone call with a very lovely support lady that tried to help but we didn't manage to change it. She told me that maybe I could just open a new account but then I said that my whole life is on this account and that is not an option. If I have to start over I'd rather make sure this won't happen again.
- seanalltogether 9y ago
fiatjaf 9y ago
Does it work for Brazilian merchants?
igravious 9y ago
The alt attribute text for the large "G Pay" logo is not "Google Pay" as one would expect but the cheerful "Google Pay Lockup". Who or what is being locked up is up for you to decide.
kazuki 9y ago
They shouldn't keep renaming products, especially when they don't control the ecosystem. I know a few apps and many merchants that still have Google Wallet branding - which should have been updated to Android Pay two years ago. Now there is another layer of confusion.
cmurf 9y ago
I'm not surprised there's yet another rebranding in Google world. You can pretty much track rebranding, not based on features or coherency, but rather someone being promoted. And on top of it, the Peter Principle has been thrown out the window so we get shit that's constantly being replaced with different shit, because when you're not improving Ux the only thing left to make your job relevant is to make the Ux different.
polskibus 9y ago
I wonder if a payment service provider is using google as their cloud. If so, they should consider moving !
Rafert 9y ago
This bit is a little buried, but it's the biggest win IMO: > With Google Pay, it’ll be easier for you to use the payment information saved to your Google Account On the web/in Android apps this allows you to pay with any credit card stored on your Google account. If you're on an Android device you can use your Android Pay card as well. Both with the same API for an ecommerce website or app.
shekyboy 9y ago
The screenshots look like they did a find and replace apple logo with the G logo... Probably makes it easier for all the merchants who might be getting tired of all this repackaging and rebranding
zmmmmm 9y ago
I am at least happy they are going to stop abusing the "Android" brand. Android became popular primarily because it offered an open source solution that manufacturers and phone byers could heavily customize (you can argue whether that's a good idea, but that was its main value proposition nonetheless). That Google took as a brand and then started exploiting it to push products that are entirely closed and have no real connection whatsoever to the actual core value proposition associated with Android has always irked me.
ryen 9y ago
FYI, linked from the post is a support article for "Get $5 off your Fandango tickets with Google Pay" and others https://support.google.com/googlepay/answer/7625564?p=tc&visit_id=1-636510568382544558-4236394179&rd=1 https://support.google.com/googlepay/answer/7625564?p=tc&vis...
esaym 9y ago
I'll stick with Samsung Pay since it actually works with legacy credit card swipe machines.
songco 9y ago
So another google service we can't access from China.
- bschwindHN 9y ago
  Sounds like a China problem.
  - songco 9y ago
    Yes, the GFW blocked all google services...
dingo_bat 9y ago
Does this offer anything above existing solutions like Apple Pay or Samsung Pay?
andmed3 9y ago
One thing to consider: Google Pay, at least now, checks if bootloader is unmodified. This means it wont't work for you on many devices if you prefer installing pure android (like AOSP) instead of vendor provided. Uniting online payments under one google Pay umbrella will make experience for such people (me including) worse. Would be nice if Googlers would consider this.
prepend 9y ago
How does this relate to Samsung Pay? If a retailer takes Google Pay do they automatically take SamsungPay with Samsung phones? Or vice versa?

303 points by dfabulich 9y ago

Google's payment solutions are shockingly diverse. Google Checkout, Google Wallet, Android Pay, and now Google Pay. Checkout failed so they replaced it with Google Wallet; Wallet failed and they replaced it with Android Pay. The Google Pay API developer site https://developers.google.com/payments/ https://developers.google.com/payments/ has the audacity to call it "The newest way to pay with Google." I wouldn't be surprised to see yet another brand (and yet another API) within the next three years.

r00fus 9y ago
This. I mean, it takes lot of effort to keep up with Google's "throw it all on the wall and see what sticks" approach as a user. People chide Apple for not moving fast enough, but in many cases, being stable is more important than refactoring every 2 years.
provost 9y ago
Also, they have had Hangouts, Messenger, Talk, Voice, Allo, and Duo... most with the same functionality. What is up with Google's product management? Is there a strategy?
- joekrill 9y ago
  Then they seem to randomly consolidate (I believe Hangouts was supposed to bring all that together, including SMS), only to do a complete 180 a few months later and split everything up again. I mean it's kind of absurd at this point.
  - ignoramous 9y ago
    I think the hangouts/duo/allo is a one-off, and that was because of Vic Gundotra loosing out?
- mbesto 9y ago
  My understanding is that they effectively let these service duke it out to see which one survives and then choose that one.
  - ocdtrekkie 9y ago
    The problem is, most of these sorts of services work via a network effect. Especially chat: You use the one all your friends are using. Payment is the one that all your accounts and stores you go to support. Running a bunch of your own competitors is self-defeating when it ensures you don't have the network effect. Google Talk worked mostly because it was in Gmail, and everyone had Gmail. People who never used it had it, because Gmail.
  - yupyup 9y ago
    Darwinian Product Strategy? Quick, someone should register it and publish a book and make a career giving talks about it...
  - jaxondu 9y ago
    Feel the same. One example is Angular Typescript and then there is AngularDart, both are used by teams in Google.
  - gedy 9y ago
    Maybe that works for their internal politics, but not for the users. I've given up even trying new Google offerings
    - mbesto 9y ago
      Never said it was a good strategy ;)
- nine_k 9y ago
  Hmm, what? I think e.g. Talk/Hangouts and Voice are radically different: one is about text messaging and video calls, another is about a connection to the "legacy" voice telephony network, with a dial-able number, etc. They started (long ago) form very different areas. They could have a seamless bridge between them, though. They sort of tried: you can dial a phone from Hangouts, but not back, or you can receive your Voice text messages in the email, but not send a reply back (afaict). Google is notoriously bad at cohesive product management. They have a number of bright ideas, but no visionary in the consumer product space, so apparently no coordination.
  - niftich 9y ago
    Google Voice was a rebrand of a product acquired in 2009. Google Talk was an XMPP chat service launched in 2005, and integrated into Gmail in 2006. "+Hangouts" was originally a feature inside Google Plus, launched in 2011, just like "+Messenger". 'Google Hangouts' was a 2013 launch to bring Talk, +Messenger, and +Hangouts into one product. This was further blurred by their various apps, which sometimes had differing functionality from the websites. The latest iteration of Google Voice has chat, for example, while SMS support inside the Hangouts Android App was removed on purpose and users told to use yet another app, first called Messenger, now called Messages. All their communication products suffer from convergent evolution, yet remain in dizzyingly varying states of integration with each other.
    - jyrkesh 9y ago
      I've had a miserable love-hate relationship with Google Voice for years, what do you mean by "the latest iteration of Google Voice has chat?"
      - niftich 9y ago
        Announced in January 2017, the Android, iOS, and Web versions of Google Voice have a revamped UI and, apparently, text chat [1]; discussed on HN at [2]. [1] https://blog.google/products/google-voice/ringing-2017-updates-our-google-voice-apps/ https://blog.google/products/google-voice/ringing-2017-updat... [2] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13463940 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13463940
- jonny_eh 9y ago
  You forgot Google Meet: https://meet.google.com/ https://meet.google.com/
  - weber111 9y ago
    Thanks for pointing that out! I had no idea it existed.
  - edaemon 9y ago
    Which is also branded as one of "Meet" [1], "Google Meet" [2], or "Hangouts Meet" [3], depending on where you go. [1] https://meet.google.com/ https://meet.google.com/ [2] https://www.google.com/search?q=google+meet https://www.google.com/search?q=google+meet [3] https://itunes.apple.com/US/app/id1013231476 https://itunes.apple.com/US/app/id1013231476
  - sorenjan 9y ago
    > Meet doesn't work on your browser > To join the video meeting > Install the current version of Google Chrome Google is the new Microsoft. Also, don't forget Google Spaces. Although you might as well, it lasted less than a year.
  - bradbeattie 9y ago
    And Spaces: https://get.google.com/spaces/ https://get.google.com/spaces/ Oh, that one's already gone. Why on earth would anyone jump on board a new Google product when they have the lifespan of fruit flies?
- rwc 9y ago
  But you forgot Chat! They've held their Slack competitor announced nearly a year ago in EAP so long you wonder if the damn thing will ever see the light of day... https://gsuite.google.com/campaigns/index__chateap.html https://gsuite.google.com/campaigns/index__chateap.html
kinkrtyavimoodh 9y ago
And there's Tez in India and no one even remembers Handsfree
revelation 9y ago
And it's still only credit cards. Like how many iterations can you possibly have on CC processing. Add debit and then it becomes a lot more useful, but no.
- desas 9y ago
  Odd, are you in the U.S.A? It's not debit card only in the UK.
  - vinay427 9y ago
    I believe GP was saying it was credit card only (no debit cards), or is that what you meant?
    - dbbk 9y ago
      I find it extremely hard to believe that it's credit card only. Debit cards are more popular in the UK.
- criddell 9y ago
  Why would you choose debit over credit? I have a debit and credit card and only use the debit card when I absolutely have to.
  - stephenr 9y ago
    When you have actual money and dont want to pay interest?
    - criddell 9y ago
      If you have money, why aren't you paying your credit card bill on time?
      - Doctor_Fegg 9y ago
        If I have money, why do I need a credit card? I’m guessing you’re American: much of Europe doesn’t bother with credit cards, myself included.
tgb 9y ago
Ars Technica calls this a "merge" of all those payments solutions. https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2018/01/google-rebrands-all-its-payment-solutions-as-google-pay/ https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2018/01/google-rebrands-all-...
- ocdtrekkie 9y ago
  Written by a former Android Police writer, yes. It's unsurprising it comes with an optimistic bent.
  - eco 9y ago
    I'm not sure I would characterize it as optimistic. The subtitle is "Fifth Times A Charm!" and the bulk of it is talking about how many times Google has (mostly unsuccessfully) tried to make a product in this space. I find Ron Amadeo's articles are often much more critical of Google than others writing about them. If I were to summarize his attitude in much of his writing it'd be "Come on, you need to do better than this, Google." It's refreshing because normally writers who cover a particular company almost always view them through rose colored glasses and minimize all the mistakes.
    - ocdtrekkie 9y ago
      I have a generally positive view of Ron's work, but there's been some tragic missteps of late. This is a trashfire of a piece justifying incredible incompetence by Google[1], and suggesting a major vulnerability 'isn't a big deal': https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2017/11/pixel-wont-get-krack-fix-until-december-but-is-that-really-a-big-deal/ https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2017/11/pixel-wont-get-krack... [1]Google had months of notice under coordinated disclosure, and it took them a couple months after it went public for the fix to finally make it to Pixel devices (which is to say, most other Android devices still aren't patched). Since ROM authors fixed this in like two days, the fact that Google couldn't do it in five months is inexcusable. I actually suspect this may be part of why the Android Security Lead just shifted to a massively less important position at Google around the end of the year.
debt 9y ago
They're all trying to Venmo-ify payments. You run a balance on their platform and just pay with that. Tech companies are trying to become outright banks, but with none of the FDIC insurance or other safeguards that goes along with it lol. Innovation...
- briandear 9y ago
  > They're all trying to Venmo-ify payments. Not all -- Apple Pay doesn't do the balance on their platform thing. https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT207886 https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT207886
loeg 9y ago
Huh, I still use wallet for P2P transfers. What do you mean by failed, and is it going away?
nathancahill 9y ago
Not to mention the various payment options for their services, which sometimes integrate with Wallet/Pay and sometimes don't.

27182818284 9y ago

Glad they're doing this. I found myself wondering just last week, "Do I want Google Pay or Google Wallet? Which is which? Can one hold my library card bar code?"

Talyen42 9y ago

Glad they've finally started to recognize app duplication as a problem for consumers. How many messaging apps does Google have again? I can't keep track.

appleflaxen 9y ago
and now there are n+1 payment options
joekrill 9y ago
I'm not sure they've recognized anything. They go through this consolidate-branch cycle pretty regularly with so many of their products.

Avery3R 9y ago

Sticky header and sticky footer. Only 60% of my screen is being used for the article content...

lewapkon 9y ago
You can hide the sticky footer by clicking at the button. The header hides itself when you scroll down.
- Avery3R 9y ago
  Until you accidentally scroll down a little too much then scroll back up and the text you wanted to read pops up for a second before getting obscured
yupyup 9y ago
I think frontend designers should design with a 13" laptop and NO ADITIONAL MONITORS... only the laptop screen. Then you wouldn't see more designs like this one.
- nottorp 9y ago
  There are some that seem to work like that. And then their site is a tiny thing lost in the middle of your 24" monitor... :) You.cannot.win!

anilshanbhag 9y ago

Across their diverse payment solution names, they actually have all the tech to build a Stripe competitor. Looks like they finally got their act together (hopefully!).

atonse 9y ago
Except I would trust Stripe a thousand times more than Google. Edit: trust them not to cross reference me to hell and track my every move. Security would be as good on either side.
- amelius 9y ago
  And their CSS is better :)
- marcosdumay 9y ago
  I would trust Stripe more to not cancel my account and forbid me from ever making/receiving money again. I also trust Stripe more to not disappear with my money on the process. Information security and capital security (they not declaring bankruptcy or running away with my money) are low enough to ignore for both.
eagsalazar2 9y ago
They could also take on Square by moving the "confirm, sign, tip, send receipt" aspect of Square (basically the entire interface) to the phone anywhere there is a payment system that takes tap to pay which more and more is basically everywhere. Unfortunately google doesn't agree and the actual payment experience is so shitty and limited it is a joke.

ballpark 9y ago

Hey Google, You got your fingers in too much of my life already. I'm going to avoid you also being my bank.

ehsankia 9y ago
G Pay is not a bank, it's payment processor like Stripe. They don't hold any money. Though you are right that this gives them information about what you're purchasing.
- mynameisvlad 9y ago
  Well, it's not exactly a payment processor either. They're like a payment initiator. They funnel the payments through your processor in the end, according to their docs: https://payments.google.com/solutions/onboarding/ https://payments.google.com/solutions/onboarding/

drumhead 9y ago

They're not stupid, surely they must know that constant change and fragmentation of their products just weakens thier offer to the consumer? Whats their gameplan? Are they just throwing as much as they can against the wall to see what sticks, a survival of the fittest attitute to their apps?

djaychela 9y ago
From what I've read, that's always been the way the company operates. I read on here years ago that Google 'regularly cuts off its own limbs', and never seen it so succinctly put.
askafriend 9y ago
It's incredibly frustrating because if you look at something like their messaging strategy, it makes no sense. They come out with a new way to message people seemingly every year and then abandon it instead of building on their base and giving consumers the things they actually want.
manigandham 9y ago
In this case, it's a welcome consolidation of different existing wallet/payment products. All large companies seem to have trouble with branding as politics take over and each group wants to have its own spotlight. Apple arguably had better luck due to strong centralized leadership, although that's also become undone in recent years.
- dfabulich 9y ago
  This is quite literally a consolidation in name only. "Google Pay" is a brand name for all of those products, not a unified API. Hopefully a unified product strategy will follow…
kris-s 9y ago
>They're not stupid And yet this blog page wastes ~1/3 of the vertical space with a top and bottom bar.
9y ago

amelius 9y ago

Their lack of customer service makes me cringe at the idea of paying through them.

deleted 9y ago
[deleted]
jonknee 9y ago
Eh, it's just a way to get your existing CC information to existing payment gateways without having to re-enter it. If you have a problem you would contact the company you're trying to pay or your credit card issuer, not Google. Pretty much like Apple Pay.
dragonwriter 9y ago
Never needed customer service for Android Pay or Wallet, but Google Express has excellent customer service.
praneshp 9y ago
For the only Google service I pay for (Project Fi), customer service is stellar.
- eagsalazar2 9y ago
  Google in general has become pretty amazing at customer service. You can get someone competent on the phone 24-7 for Home also.
  - kinkrtyavimoodh 9y ago
    Yeah I think we can conclude that they are good at customer service if you are paying for the product. Good luck getting your blocked GMail unblocked if you weren't lucky enough to have the blog post detailing your story go viral.
- netinstructions 9y ago
  Huh I had quite a miserable time with Project Fi customer service. Phone calls, emails and chat failed to resolve my issue. Only after countless Tweets / Reddit posts / Official Google product support forum posts that went on for nearly a week did I get lucky and finally talk to someone who could help me.[1] They gave me $50 off a month's bill at the end of all of it but it was such a frustrating ordeal. You couldn't pay me $500 to do it all over again. Their customer service is a joke. After spending time on their product support forums, I was far from alone. [1] http://www.netinstructions.com/what-the-heck-google-my-project-fi-and-pixel-2-woes/ http://www.netinstructions.com/what-the-heck-google-my-proje...

arkitaip 9y ago

You know what bothers me about giants like Google? They can absolutely suck at delivering an app or service for many years but because of their vast resources, they can keep throwing people and money at their projects until something sticks. Makes it very difficult for even very competent startups to compete against them.

zitterbewegung 9y ago

Are they trying to manage their projects with some kind of AI? Google works in mysterious ways and I don’t understand most of what they do outside of Google search.

myaso 9y ago
There is probably a lack of executive tlc to go around for all their stuff. I don't get it either, they break things that work already -- I simply cannot trust anything they put out that isn't search/Android/Google AI stuff anymore. Wasn't there some heuristic that a large company can only have 3 strategic priorities? Guess these 3 are it.

ecesena 9y ago

Will this work on ios? I’m using wallet and it would be great to continue using it.

orliesaurus 9y ago

I think I've only seen one person pay with Apple Pay in the last four years. It was at Walgreens. Maybe I'm missing something obvious but please do tell me HN readers do you use Apple Pay or Android pay at all ? and if you do use it how often every month?

jefffan241 9y ago
I use android pay whenever possible. I use it multiple times per month. I also use it when available in apps.
ocdtrekkie 9y ago
I have a credit card with an NFC chip built in. I enjoy swiping my wallet over the payment terminal and mystifying people at stores with what I just did.
blhack 9y ago
Huh. I use apple pay for probably half of purchases around Phoenix.
wickedlogic 9y ago
Every morning at breakfast. Maybe other places during the day.
antimatter 9y ago
I use Apple Pay regularly (multiple times per month) at Whole Foods, Trader Joe's, Starbucks and Coffee Bean. On more rare occasions when I do end up shopping for cloths in person, I've used it at department stores.
Mister_Snuggles 9y ago
In Canada, a lot of credit and debit cards are NFC-enabled. I discovered that the NFC-enabled payment terminals will take a payment via Apple Pay just as though it was a plastic card. I've only seen two businesses actually advertise that they take Apple Pay, but I've used it at countless businesses that don't advertise it.
9y ago

clhodapp 9y ago

Why did Google cut Android Pay out of Wallet if they were just going to do this? It's as if Google's consumer product teams all turn over every 2 years and each one reverses the vision of unity vs fragmented, specialized, self-competing products, executes their vision, and then leaves...

dragonwriter 9y ago
> Why did Google cut Android Pay out of Wallet if they were just going to do this? They didn't. Android Pay was a renamed of an acquisition that was originally planned to be integrated with Wallet but wasn't (well, until now), it just looked like it was cut out of Wallet because they killed Waller’s similar NFC payment functionality. From the fact that they now for a while have had “pay with Google” that can use cards from Wallet, Android Pay, and some other superficially siloed single-app payment systems at Google, I would assume they’ve actually finally integrated everything to use the same infrastructure as Android Pay, so now the siloes can go away.
- clhodapp 9y ago
  Very interesting insight into what happened on the technical side! The progression of events certainly does make a lot more sense with that perspective, though understanding the details of what actually happened inside the backend doesn't really change the fact that, from a customer perspective, we really did see public-facing messaging indicating that one app was split into two and then later public-facing messaging indicting that (more than) those two apps where then brought back together again a couple years later.
infogulch 9y ago
More like each newly turned over product team always makes a https://xkcd.com/927/ https://xkcd.com/927/ decision, and only gets 80% through to completion before the next batch decides to do-over yet again.

brndnmtthws 9y ago

I might start caring about Google/Apple pay if they add support for Bitcoin and lightning network payments. Until then, there's really nothing new or innovative to be seen here.

brokensegue 9y ago
what lightning network?
bpicolo 9y ago
You ready to deal with paying capital gains tax every time you purchase something?

untog 9y ago

Forgive me, but isn't this what Google Wallet was, at one point? Then at some point Google Wallet was split out into Android Pay. And now it's Google Pay? It's made all the worse by the fact that these names/logos/etc are reflected on actual physical hardware distributed to stores around the world. Those old names aren't going anywhere soon. Google has done this so many times now (Hangouts/Allo/Messenger, anyone?) that I wonder if there is anyone behind the wheel any more.

dragonwriter 9y ago
> Forgive me, but isn't this what Google Wallet was, at one point? Not exactly, as it includes things that were never part of Wallet. > Then at some point Google Wallet was split out into Android Pay. And now it's Google Pay? Android Pay was a renamed acquisition that was originally intended to be merged with Wallet but was kept apart (but Wallet’s NFC payment feature was retired as Android Pay was brought online, which made it look like Wallet was being split up.) But Google Pay seems to merge in a number of other siloed app-specific Google payment features as well.as Wallet and Android Pay (these clearly have been integrated behind the scenes for a while, since their “pay with Google” feature leveraged payment methods you had registered through any of them or Wallet or Android Pay), so this looks like the UI and branding catching up with backend integration.
- chauzer 9y ago
  What acquisition was Android Pay?
  - mattmcknight 9y ago
    I think they just purchased some patents from Softcard in 2015.
trendia 9y ago
The most Google thing to do would now be to deprecate Android pay, no longer support merchants who don't upgrade their point of sale systems, and provide no contact line for support.

sergiotapia 9y ago

Buyer beware. Your one Google account is trendils into everything. For example: I uploaded some clips of an old 90s show and got flagged for copyright. Now I can't upload/comment/sign into Youtube. How does this affect Google Pay? What about Google Domains? Bleh. I don't really like all-in-accounts anymore. Much rather have separate silo'd accounts.

soared 9y ago
Copyright claims don't affect a user's ability to login to their google account.. what are you talking about?
- sergiotapia 9y ago
  Why would I lie about this lmao https://i.imgur.com/bB3CAcC.png https://i.imgur.com/bB3CAcC.png
barrkel 9y ago
Yup. Same reason I spread my risk with a bunch of Amazon products rather than stick to any one ecosystem. It's either that or abandon the whole system altogether.
OkGoDoIt 9y ago
I agree. Over a decade ago when I was a freshman in college I participated in an AdSense click ring with my dormmates. We made $200 or so each, which was cool at that age. Within a few months we got caught and banned from AdSense. Now I have a YouTube channel with tens of thousands of viewers but I can’t monetize it at all, even though YouTube wasn’t even part of the same company as AdSense when my silly freshman experiment went down.
- dave5104 9y ago
  Not sure if this'll help your situation, but I did something equally dumb when I was back in high school. Clicked on my own ads, got banned from AdSense, etc. (Luckily, it didn't affect my other Google services at the time.) Recently, however, a Google AdSense sales rep reached out to me trying to sell me on AdSense. I explained the past situation and that I was "banned", but this sales rep was apparently able to get that lifted and get me back into the program. I never ended up using AdSense, but I now have an open account that isn't blocked anymore. Might help in your situation if you ever run into a Google sales rep.

eagsalazar2 9y ago

<WTF rant> - cards listed are only viewable as huge generic CC images and you can't customize either the image or even give it a name. Why this terrible skeuomorphic mess? I have different cards for different types of purchases and they all look identical and I have to scroll through them because they are huge. WTF? - When making payments there is no quick way to select which card you want to pay with. I'm pretty sure I'm not the only one who sometimes uses different personal cards, credit vs debit, or company vs personal. WTF?? - There is no user purchase validation step! I just swipe my phone and transaction is done. I get this is the same as using a CC but in theory there is such a huge opportunity to improve the experience. How about popping up a thing where I confirm the purchase, even add a tip or sign for some purchases? WTF??? - Pretty much zero updates for years. WTF google???? </WTF rant> Honestly any of these issue are almost deal breakers but I do use it mainly because I get a geeky thrill out of it still when it works. Are some of these limitations imposed by the CC companies and banks? Like Wells Fargo saying they'll only participate if Google uses the exact full size card image? Or is this just an example of insanely bad UX in a totally dysfunctional product team? I have no idea but the current app is mind-blowingly crappy.

deleted 9y ago
[deleted]
freditup 9y ago
> There is no user purchase validation step! I just swipe my phone and transaction is done. I get this is the same as using a CC but in theory there is such a huge opportunity to improve the experience. How about popping up a thing where I confirm the purchase, even add a tip or sign for some purchases? WTF??? I disagree with you here. I want the payment to be as fast and painless as possible. A "tip" screen, a "sign" screen, etc. would all be very annoying. I suppose adding these optionally somehow could work though. On a technical note, it's not quite the same as swiping a CC. There's some authentication to start - you must authenticate on your phone (via fingerprint or pattern or whatever lock mechanism you have) before you can make a payment. In addition, a one-time token is sent instead of your actual CC number, so the retailer couldn't reuse your payment info. In other words, it's much more secure than "signing" ever was and you get some nice security benefits by using your phone as opposed to swiping a credit card.

criddell 9y ago

Has Google said what they do with the information they collect when people use Google Pay? Does it get added to my profile? I don't see anything under "My Account" on the Google website.

pavanlimo 9y ago

Is it just me who read it as Google Play instead of Pay?

dvh 9y ago

For Google products please always put in the title if it is new product or discontinued product, thanks.

sevagh 9y ago

The toughest part of immigrating from Canada to the U.S. was figuring out the mess that was Google Play Store, Google Wallet, Google Payment Profiles, and Google Pay to get myself recognized as being in the U.S. and thus able to download U.S.-only apps.

kyrra 9y ago
(I work for Google payments, opinions are my own) I believe this process has been improved in the last year to more easily change your country. I'm not sure when you went through it, but understand that it can be a complicated problems due to different regulations for payment related activity and digital goods. Like some countries Google is required to verify your tax id with the government to even buy 99 cent app.
- akkat 9y ago
  I can't compare it to how it was before but when I lived in my old country I bought something on Google play and now that I am in my new country I cannot download anything that is restricted to that country. There is no way that I can revert to how it was before I gave Google my credit card information. What I can do is give Google my new credit card information, but I don't want to do that simply to download a free country restricted app. What I ended up doing was making a new google play account and not purchasing anything through Google.
- rndstr 9y ago
  I wasn't able to get my country changed after I somewhat accidently opened a merchant account years ago. I have never used that merchant account. It also didn't tell me that I won't be able to change my country if I open one. I've now been living in the UK for six months and three months ago I had a 3hr phone call with a very lovely support lady that tried to help but we didn't manage to change it. She told me that maybe I could just open a new account but then I said that my whole life is on this account and that is not an option. If I have to start over I'd rather make sure this won't happen again.
seanalltogether 9y ago

fiatjaf 9y ago

Does it work for Brazilian merchants?

igravious 9y ago

The alt attribute text for the large "G Pay" logo is not "Google Pay" as one would expect but the cheerful "Google Pay Lockup". Who or what is being locked up is up for you to decide.

kazuki 9y ago

They shouldn't keep renaming products, especially when they don't control the ecosystem. I know a few apps and many merchants that still have Google Wallet branding - which should have been updated to Android Pay two years ago. Now there is another layer of confusion.

cmurf 9y ago

I'm not surprised there's yet another rebranding in Google world. You can pretty much track rebranding, not based on features or coherency, but rather someone being promoted. And on top of it, the Peter Principle has been thrown out the window so we get shit that's constantly being replaced with different shit, because when you're not improving Ux the only thing left to make your job relevant is to make the Ux different.

polskibus 9y ago

I wonder if a payment service provider is using google as their cloud. If so, they should consider moving !

Rafert 9y ago

This bit is a little buried, but it's the biggest win IMO: > With Google Pay, it’ll be easier for you to use the payment information saved to your Google Account On the web/in Android apps this allows you to pay with any credit card stored on your Google account. If you're on an Android device you can use your Android Pay card as well. Both with the same API for an ecommerce website or app.

shekyboy 9y ago

The screenshots look like they did a find and replace apple logo with the G logo... Probably makes it easier for all the merchants who might be getting tired of all this repackaging and rebranding

zmmmmm 9y ago

I am at least happy they are going to stop abusing the "Android" brand. Android became popular primarily because it offered an open source solution that manufacturers and phone byers could heavily customize (you can argue whether that's a good idea, but that was its main value proposition nonetheless). That Google took as a brand and then started exploiting it to push products that are entirely closed and have no real connection whatsoever to the actual core value proposition associated with Android has always irked me.

ryen 9y ago

FYI, linked from the post is a support article for "Get $5 off your Fandango tickets with Google Pay" and others https://support.google.com/googlepay/answer/7625564?p=tc&visit_id=1-636510568382544558-4236394179&rd=1 https://support.google.com/googlepay/answer/7625564?p=tc&vis...

esaym 9y ago

I'll stick with Samsung Pay since it actually works with legacy credit card swipe machines.

songco 9y ago

So another google service we can't access from China.

bschwindHN 9y ago
Sounds like a China problem.
- songco 9y ago
  Yes, the GFW blocked all google services...

dingo_bat 9y ago

Does this offer anything above existing solutions like Apple Pay or Samsung Pay?

andmed3 9y ago

One thing to consider: Google Pay, at least now, checks if bootloader is unmodified. This means it wont't work for you on many devices if you prefer installing pure android (like AOSP) instead of vendor provided. Uniting online payments under one google Pay umbrella will make experience for such people (me including) worse. Would be nice if Googlers would consider this.

prepend 9y ago

How does this relate to Samsung Pay? If a retailer takes Google Pay do they automatically take SamsungPay with Samsung phones? Or vice versa?