What you need to know
- Google Play has new means to make payments for subscriptions in India.
- The Play Store now allows users to pay for their subscription apps through UPI.
- The new functionality comes from the UPI payment method launched in 2019.
Google Play Store in India is getting a new convenient payment method for subscription-based apps. It is the ability to pay for subscriptions via UPI.
Unified Payment Interface (UPI) is a convenient payment system for Android users in India. It first debuted in 2019 as an alternative to credit/debit cards and net banking, amongst others. The UPI method allowed users to make app/game and in-app purchases. This week, Google announced additional functionality that’s being added to the UPI payment system, which is the ability to pay for subscriptions.
It is dubbed UPI Autopay for the Google Play Store in the country. National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI), the wing that brings the majority of digital retail payments under one roof (including various UPI apps), has seemingly launched UPI 2.0.
The new UPI Autopay falls under the new UPI 2.0, which “helps people make recurring payments using any UPI application that supports the feature.”
Google Play offers plenty of apps and games, some of which include paid apps and those that contain in-app purchases. Google currently allows users to purchase them through multiple means, like adding a credit card. The company has often been vocal about encouraging local payments based on several regions across the globe.
The UPI is a great example, and the new autopay feature promises to make enrolling in subscriptions easier. After selecting the UPI autopay payment (“Pay with UPI”) getaway in the Google Play Store, users would have to approve the purchase by making the payment in their respective UPI app, like Google Pay, for instance.
Google says the primary goal is to help more people opt for a hassle-free payment functionality for subscription services subsequent to app purchases and in-app purchases.
