Google Wallet, an app that allows people to make payments with their credit or debit cards at point-of-sale (PoS) terminals using their smartphones, works over NFC (Near Field Communication). The majority of mobile phones in developed countries, such as the US, are equipped with NFC. However, the number of smartphones featuring NFC in developing countries, such as Brazil, is very low. Due to it, the utilization of Google Wallet in these regions is restricted. Well, Google has found a way around this obstacle.
At Google for Brazil 2023, the tech giant announced that it would soon introduce QR code payments to Google Wallet in Brazil. This feature will allow people to make payments with their credit/debit cards at PoS machines, even with phones that lack NFC. This feature seems very easy to use. First, people have to add their credit/debit card to the Google Wallet app, and when they want to make a payment, they just have to scan a QR code displayed on the PoS machine with their phone’s camera and authorize the payment.
According to Google, QR code payments will arrive in Google Wallet in Brazil “in the coming months”. That’s a pretty fast timeline for the rollout of the feature, considering that the tech giant will have to work with PoS machine vendors, banks, and government authorities to implement it. Once Google rolls out the QR code payments feature in Brazil, the company will most likely expand it to other regions as well. But before that, it should launch Google Wallet in countries like India, where Apple is planning to launch Apple Pay.
Samsung already has Samsung Pay and Samsung Credit Card in India. However, Google Pay has a huge market share in India for the UPI (Unified Payments Interface) transactions market. Samsung Pay also features UPI functionality, but its usage is quite low compared to Google Pay, PhonePe, Paytm, and other apps.
