Google Pay on Wednesday announced a collaboration with Pine Labs to introduce “Tap to Pay” for UPI payments, a feature previously only available for card payments.
Now, to complete a payment, a user simply taps their phone on the point-of-sale (PoS) terminal and authenticates the payment from their phone using their UPI PIN.
“The functionality will be available to any UPI user who wants to use their NFC-enabled Android smartphone to transact with any Pine Labs Android POS terminal across the country,” the company said, adding that this was trialled with Reliance Retail and it would now be available at other major retailers such as Future Retail and Starbucks.
“Tap to Pay for UPI is having a profound impact on busy retail stores as it seeks to greatly reduce the burden of queue management and takes digital payments at the POS well beyond cards. We are very excited to bring this first-ever innovation to India in partnership with Pine Labs,” said Sajith Sivanandan, Business Head – Google Pay and Next Billion User initiatives, Google APAC.
“With transactions worth ₹8.26 lakh crore in December 2021, UPI has seen a big boost in India. We believe this will further increase the adoption of UPI in India and will appeal to consumers, particularly the young demographic who appreciate contactless and digital payments,” said Kush Mehra, Chief Business Officer, Pine Labs.
