Say goodbye to Google Wallet and hello to Android Pay

Poor Google. Even though Google Wallet was one of the pioneers of mobile payments, it’s now playing catch-up to Apple Pay, which itself is only a few months old. Obviously the company has to rethink its mobile payments strategy and, if a recent report from Ars Technica is to be believed, Google will be unveiling a new mobile payments platform known as Android Pay at the company’s I/O conference in May. 

A source close to the matter told Ars on Wednesday that Google will be announcing a new payments API that will be called Android Pay at Google’s I/O conference in May. The platform will power in-store and in-app payments for third-party apps. Android Pay will allow companies to add a mobile payments option to their app, to which users can upload credit card or debit card information, so that payments become single-tap transactions within the app. In addition, a company adopting the Android Pay API will be able to allow tap-to-pay transactions in brick-and-mortar stores. This function will rely on Google’s Host Card Emulation (HCE), which makes it easier for third-party apps to take advantage of Android phones’ Near Field Communications (NFC) chips. As opposed to Google Wallet, the Android Pay API will be “built from the ground up” for Android developers, using HCE.