On the Horizon: Pay by Voice with Google Hands Free

Fingerprints, iris scanners, facial recognition, and even vein mapping have been noted as options to add another layer of security, attempting to replace PINs, patterns, and tokens. But now Google wants to roll out a different method—activated by voice and verified using initials and photos—to pay for in-store transactions.

Playing into the continued rise of mobile payments, Google Hands Free looks beyond the near-field communication (NFC) payments brought into the forefront by Apple Pay, Android Pay, and Samsung Pay.

“I’d Like to Pay with Google”

Available to both Android and iOS customers at select locations including McDonald’s, Papa John’s and other local retailers in the San Francisco area, Google Hands Free uses Bluetooth low energy (Bluetooth LE), Wi-Fi, location services, and other sensors in your phone to detect whether you are near a participating store.

A CNET reporter tested Google Hands Free, sharing her experience with the technology in a video below:

Following in the footsteps of Square’s 2012 ‘Pay with Square’ platform and PayPal’s 2013 Beacon-enabled payments, Google hopes Hands Free will overcome the main challenge faced by each—merchant and consumer apathy.

How It Works

Google intends to make Hands Free as simple as secure as possible:

• Install Hands Free (Android, iOS)
• Log in using your Google Account
• Opt to use payment card already connected to account or add a new card
• Take a “selfie,” a photo that will appear on the retailer POS to confirm your identity
• Confirm initials to be used in the verification process

After installing Hands Free and going through the registration process, the application is ready for use.

The Hands Free app uses Bluetooth LE, Wi-Fi, location services, and other sensors on your phone to detect whether a user is near a participating store. After completing an order, all a user has to say is “I’d like to pay with Google.”

The cashier at the store will verify that the image and initials match those displayed on the POS screen, and the order will be completed.

Security and Privacy Concerns and Measures

As with other forms of mobile payments, there exist concerns of whether or not the platform is secure.

A notable concern, but Roger Kay of Endpoint Technologies Associates actually believes that Google Hands Free is more secure than other platforms.

In an Ecommerce Times article announcing Hands Free, Kay notes that it includes three factors of authentication:

“Some of it is proximity via WiFi and Bluetooth, so the device has to be there, and then there is the photo that is used for confirmation. And finally you need to give your initials,” he told the E-Commerce Times.

In addition to this, Google touts that Hands Free never shares full payment details with the retailer POS, reducing the risk of credit card numbers being copied.

Issues remain, however, that need to be addressed. The most notable of these issues being the cashier’s ability to recognize your face and confirm that you are actually the person making the purchase. But Google hopes to fix this—with cameras.

Looking Forward: Facial Recognition by Camera

Noted in a 9 to 5 Mac article, Google wants to automate the face-recognition part, so that technology, not a cashier, will verify your face. Author Ben Lovejoy goes so far as saying that if Google can iron out any of the kinks with facial recognition by camera, that Google Hands Free could become “more convenient than [Apple Pay using] Apple Watch.”

Related: Shop Smile Pay: Facial Recognition in Payments

“Modern-day facial recognition tech is very, very good. The latest techniques use three cameras to build a 3D image of the face, allowing literally hundreds of measurements to be made, including things as detailed as the contours of your eye sockets and exact shape of your nose. This can be supplemented by skin texture analysis, where the lines and patterns in your skin are also verified.

If Google can get that right – sufficiently secure that there are no false positives (verifying someone else’s face as yours) and an extremely low rate of false negatives (failing to recognize your face) – it will achieve something I didn’t think possible: a payment method more convenient than the Apple Watch.”

Stay Up to Date with the Latest from WEX

Learn more about Google Hands Free on their website and from their press release. Stay up to date with all the latest in payments and biometric authentication using the resources below.

• Biometrics in Payments
• The Rise of Biometrics in Healthcare, Finance, and Payments
• 2016 Mobile Payments State of the Industry
• Payments in the Internet of Everything
• Are Digital Wallets In, Out, or Somewhere in Between?
• Barriers to Use in Mobile Payments
• Samsung Pay and Android Pay Rise to Answer Apple Pay
• Enabling Mobile Payments for Closed loop Private Label Cards
• In-Store Digital Wallet Payments: The 3 Things Consumers Are Waiting For

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