Confident in keeping its expansion going, Google has announced several important updates to the Android Pay experience this week. At the root of it all is adding more banks, with Chase now on board in the U.S. for its most popular cards (Freedom, Slate, Sapphire, etc.), and both Santander and TSB coming on board in the UK. Dozens of banks are now supported, from the big names down to small credit unions.
Not stopping there, Android Pay has also expanded its loyalty card acceptance with specific retailers to let you earn rewards without scanning a separate card — just pay with Android Pay and you'll make a secure payment and get loyalty rewards. Walgreens recently rolled this out for its Balance Rewards program, but now Dunkin' Donuts and Chili's are on board and rolling out the feature in "the coming months." Uber has already launched its Payment Rewards program in Android Pay, and to celebrate is offering 50% off 10 Uber rides just for using Android Pay in the app — no codes or coupons required.
Crucially, the features here will get consumer to use Android Pay a second and third time
And now after months in limbo, Android Pay is starting its rollout for real on the mobile web. Just like we've done for years with Google Wallet and third-party solutions like PayPal and Amazon Payments, you'll soon be able to use your stored Android Pay cards to make purchases from websites on your phone. Big retailers like Groupon and 1-800-Flowers are launch partners, but just looking at the number of sites (a lot of sites) that used Google Wallet before should give you an idea of how many more to expect soon.
Android Pay has won the support and trust of the people who are currently using it, but the issue right now is keeping the service top of mind week after week and now well over a year after it launched.
We understandably complained when the payment service launched with fewer features than Google Wallet and lots of unfulfilled promises, and that has spoiled its adoption some as people simply tried it and promptly forgot about it. With big launches of new banks, more app integrations, loyalty program features and the rollout of mobile web purchasing, there's enough here to get people to not only try Android Pay for the first time, but far more crucially try it for the second and third times.
