Google says, ‘look ma, no hands’

The latest innovation in mobile payment is the elimination of those pesky hands.



Google is piloting a new mobile payment app called “Hands Free” at select food service retailers, including some McDonald’s and Papa John’s stores, in the South Bay region of Silicon Valley. Unlike Google’s existing Android Pay mobile payment app, Hands Free works on both Android and iOS devices.



Hands Free uses Bluetooth low energy, Wi-Fi, and location services on a user’s phone to detect whether they are near a participating store. To make a payment, customers tell the cashier, “I’ll pay with Google.” The cashier then asks for their initials and uses the picture the consumer added to their Hands Free profile to confirm their identity.



Full card details are not shared with stores and customers receive an instant notification on their phone when a payment is made. Customers will also be alerted to any unusual or suspicious activity.



At select stores, Google is also in the early stages of experimenting with visual identification. This process uses an in-store camera to automatically confirm consumer identity based on your Hands Free profile picture. All images captured by the Hands Free camera are deleted immediately.



MasterCard recently announced “selfie pay,” or authentication of mobile purchases with a real-time customer mobile snapshot. A number of mobile payment providers are also piloting other various types of biometric and personalized forms of authentication meant to improve both security and convenience. Removing the need to even touch your mobile phone is a step forward in ease of purchase. While relying on a cashier to verify someone’s appearance is not foolproof, it does eliminate threats such as password theft.



Also, Hands Free potentially gives Apple arch-rival Google a chance to steal significant marketshare from Apple Pay, although at this early stage it is far from a sure thing. What is sure is that mobile payment will look quite different a few years from now than it looks today.