Google Hands Free is a payment technology that authorizes the transaction or enables your shopping payment method just by saying “I’ll pay with Google” to cashier. The app allowed user to enter their payment and photo information, and then uses the combination of Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and location services to verify if your phone was in the store. When paying cashier would be presented with a photo that the user has set up in an app to confirm the transaction.
Despite Google’s best intention to provide seamless shopping, it never scaled up beyond the South Bay area. But the cool thing to note here with this kind of payment technology is that, how these technologies are trying to remove some pain points around the shopping by streamlining the purchasing process. But while Google plans for truly seamless shopping experience seem to be on hold for now, others in the tech industry are getting started with Amazon’s cashier-less Amazon Go grocery store- which functions similar to hands-free principles like Google’s app.
Although Hands Free app is shutting down, it could be the genesis of novel payment technologies like Facial recognition-based shopping that’s done completely by computer-controlled systems. With all these interesting payment tech coming to market, we have to stay tuned to witness the revolution in the payment industry.
Source: http://www.theverge.com/2017/2/2/14483758/google-hands-free-payment-app-shut-down-android-pay