Google ends Hands Free mobile payments pilot, iOS app will stop working Feb. 8
Hands Free, a pilot app from Google that let customers perform mobile payments in stores without needing to present their iPhone or Android smartphone at the checkout, will shut down next month after almost a year of testing.
Introduced in March for iOS and Android, Hands Free aimed to simplify the payment process for its users by allowing for confirmation of identity to be performed by the cashier. In theory, this allows for customers to conduct transactions with their payment cards and mobile phones safely stowed away in pockets or bags, leaving their hands free to carry their purchases and other items.
Hands Free used a combination of Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and location services to determine what store the smartphone owner is inside, and if it was a retailer participating in the program. At the point of payment, customers would advise they planned to "pay with Google," with the cashier able to check the user's identity using a photograph on the payment terminal's display.
A notice on the project's website revealed it will be shutting down next week, with users unable to make payments using the mobile apps from Feb. 8. Stores in the San Francisco Bay Area participating in the scheme will also find the payment system will be unavailable from the same date.
Google advises it will be working to "bring the best of the Hands Free technology to even more people and stores" following the app's closure. While Google "can't share any more details" about where the project is headed, it is likely some of the technology involved in its creation could be rolled into Android Pay, the company's own NFC-based mobile payments platform and main competition to Apple Pay.
Alternative forms of mobile-based payments are also being trialled by other tech companies, looking to offer customers a streamlined shopping experience. In December, Amazon revealed it's first ever grocery store called "Amazon Go," which relied on customers checking in to the store with an app before being able to collect any shopping they want and leaving, with their Amazon account automatically billed based on what was taken.
For the moment, consumers are still enjoying the use of Apple Pay, with the number of transactions up 500 percent year-on-year, according to Apple's recent quarterly financial results. The high usage helped boost the "Services" segment of Apple's business to $7.17 billion for the quarter.
Introduced in March for iOS and Android, Hands Free aimed to simplify the payment process for its users by allowing for confirmation of identity to be performed by the cashier. In theory, this allows for customers to conduct transactions with their payment cards and mobile phones safely stowed away in pockets or bags, leaving their hands free to carry their purchases and other items.
Hands Free used a combination of Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and location services to determine what store the smartphone owner is inside, and if it was a retailer participating in the program. At the point of payment, customers would advise they planned to "pay with Google," with the cashier able to check the user's identity using a photograph on the payment terminal's display.
A notice on the project's website revealed it will be shutting down next week, with users unable to make payments using the mobile apps from Feb. 8. Stores in the San Francisco Bay Area participating in the scheme will also find the payment system will be unavailable from the same date.
Google advises it will be working to "bring the best of the Hands Free technology to even more people and stores" following the app's closure. While Google "can't share any more details" about where the project is headed, it is likely some of the technology involved in its creation could be rolled into Android Pay, the company's own NFC-based mobile payments platform and main competition to Apple Pay.
Alternative forms of mobile-based payments are also being trialled by other tech companies, looking to offer customers a streamlined shopping experience. In December, Amazon revealed it's first ever grocery store called "Amazon Go," which relied on customers checking in to the store with an app before being able to collect any shopping they want and leaving, with their Amazon account automatically billed based on what was taken.
For the moment, consumers are still enjoying the use of Apple Pay, with the number of transactions up 500 percent year-on-year, according to Apple's recent quarterly financial results. The high usage helped boost the "Services" segment of Apple's business to $7.17 billion for the quarter.
Comments
....and of course Google would share your photos with retail chains.
Tell him the ApplePay competitor is dead.
For security it relies on you not changing your hairstyle or going out in drag (hey! It's my weekend!). It relies on the cashier not being short-sighted and actually giving hoot whether it's you or not.
This is worse than PIN numbers.
Well, with any luck they'll learn something from it (like it's safer to just copy what Apple does. There's a vague chance they've thought it through).
Everything else is just a public relations stunt to make you like them.
(Think "Hansel and Gretel" - the evil witch lures kids with her gingerbread house...)
Separate hardware-based secure element, tokenized credentials so that the CC number and personal info wasn't exposed to the store, fingerprint authentication, bank partnerships...
Google just didn't have the negotiating power of Apple and allowed the carriers to interfere. The more they tried to change things to please 'em the more entrenched those carriers became, and not much Google could do about it. But Apple has the power.
There fixed it for you.
It's funny how iHaters try to make up these crazy situations that could make Apple Pay insecure, for example the mad scientist steals your iPhone, dusts for fingerprints and makes a replica of your thumb in his lab to unlock your iPhone.
iPhone uses a FINGERPRINT, the most unique thing about you. This photo method is stupid considering a lot of teens use their siblings IDs to get into bars, twins exist, people shave beards and some people, like myself, have a hard time differentiating faces and I WAS A CASHIER!!
add to the fact females hate ID pictures but if Google allows you to upload your best pic you'll have girls who look nothing like their profile pic
causing more confusion than a single fingerprint.
There isn't anything that Google produces that I even want. Not even search. I myself find Bing superior.
I will say that occasionally I will go to YouTube for a how to video. Like details in programming my home automation system. But that's it. I make certain to do the search from Bing too, not in the YouTube web page.
To use Google for anything is totally absurd from my perspective. By the way, more and more of my friends and colleagues have turned to Bing for default search.
Why not turn to a privacy-oriented search engine like DuckDuckGo or StartPage instead?
DuckDuckGo probably doesn't return *quite* as good of results as Google, but they have other very nice features.
StartPage generally has excellent search results, and they have the added benefit of being a German company, with very strong laws supporting privacy.
Bing/Microsoft, unfortunately, has been veering toward the google-esque road of sucking up all their customers' personal data, much of it not only without explicit permission, but quite literally unblockable by end users. This is separate from search, happening merely by having a windows10 computer connected to the internet without an external firewall specifically set up to block this behavior.
They also didn't have the willpower to make it work. Google often believes throwing something out there to say they "did it first" is what matters, without following up and doing whats necessary to make it a success. And no, you're wrong. Google Wallet only morphed into an Apple Pay duplicate after Apple Pay was released, not before. Apple Pay didn't magically become a success.. Apple painstakingly looked at every single angle before release, and made sure all the components were there to make it a solid experience. That was never the case with Google Wallet, even on Google branded devices.
Apple makes nearly all of the hardware profits in smartphones. Samsung would like to move away from Android and onto Tizen. They make the only non Apple smartwatch worth purchasing and it doesn't run Android wear.
The only property that Google owns worth much is Youtube. And Amazon has built a competitive site. I find using Amazon superior as a prime member. The video selection is admittedly limited in comparison to YouTube but it's getting better all the time.
Google is in fact a advertising company #1. That is how they make most of their money. You are Google's product. They don't give you free stuff out of the goodness of their heart. They are making money from you using their products. If you're ok giving yourself to Google, have at it.