TL;DR
Google Pay, the unified payments service from Google, is now cross-platform. The formerly Android-only service has been rolled out to desktop web browsers and iOS devices. So if you see a “Buy with G Pay” button on your favorite shopping site, it means that Google Pay is working everywhere.
Google Pay – the company’s integrated payment service has just turned cross-platform. After the Android-exclusive launch earlier this year, Google Pay has been rolled out for desktop and iOS devices.
Rebranded from Android Pay, Google Pay has been present on the Play Store and Chrome since its launch in February. But it’s going big now with the rollout to Firefox, Safari, and iOS.
If you see a “Buy with G Pay” button at the checkout of any of your favorite shopping portals, it means they’re with Google Pay and you can now access it.
Gerardo Capiel, director of product management for consumer payments, explained via an official blog update that the expanded Google Pay functionalities can now be used on other major modern browsers like Safari and Firefox just as you would in Chrome. If you’ve used your credit card for payments on the Google Pay Android app, you can save the card and use it seamlessly on other platforms.
This marks the next logical evolution of Google’s attempt at tapping into the regular financial transactions market. Google Wallet started with equipped with NFC, sending money through Gmail attachments and gift cards way back in 2011. That gave way to Android Pay with similar features as well as being Android-exclusive. Google Pay has now unified the two not as a simple rebranding but offering integration with Google Assistant, P2P services, referral programs and more to come.
How will Google Pay fare geographically?
Apple currently has the edge with rival Apple Pay already available in 25 regions as opposed to G Pay‘s presence in only 18 markets worldwide. This could be trivial given the sheer number of Android devices across the world (if properly adopted).
Example: Apple Pay isn’t available in India and neither is G Pay (for now). But Tez, Google’s UPI-based payments app launched exclusively in India, is a huge hit in the country with widespread adoption. It is cross-platform, offers P2P services, and has various rewards and referral promos.
This just means that a Google Pay catering to different regions just as it’s now catering to the various browsers & devices might just be the key to Google finally getting the foothold it desires in global e-commerce.
