Google on Monday launched a digital payments app in India, which is based on the United Payments Interface. Google Tez, a multi-language mobile app, will allow Android and iOS users to pay online for movie tickets and utilities and make other transactions through their bank accounts.
At the launch event in Delhi, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said the app was “perhaps the simplest form of monetary transactions”. “Tez by Google and other ecosystems will make a major change in the digital payments landscape in India,” he said.
The tech giant has partnered with popular services RedBus, PVR Cinemas, Domino’s Pizza, Dish TV and Jet Airways as launch partners.
The app’s “Cash Mode” feature allows users to make payments with Audio QR technology which helps make payments by bringing two phones close to each other and entering a UPI PIN. The app also lists transactions with same contacts at one place like chat message threads.
The Android app currently supports English, Hindi, Bengali, Gujarati, Kannada, Marathi, Tamil, and Telugu. More languages will be available soon, the company said in a blog post.
The company said Tez Shield “helps detect fraud and prevent hacking”, aiming to protect every transaction and ensure security.
Google’s Chief Executive Officer Sundar Pichai had told NDTV in January that the company was looking at ways to adopt UPI, which is a government-backed digital payments service.
Currently, e-wallet service Paytm, run by One97 Communications Pvt Ltd, leads India’s digital payments market. Several new players have entered the sector over the past few months through e-wallets, payments banks, and UPI-based apps.
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