Android Pay launches in Asia starting with Singapore

SINGAPORE -- Starting Tuesday local time, most Android users in Singapore will be able to link their credit cards to their phones and tap to pay at retail outlets on the island.

This makes Singapore the third country globally to get the Google mobile payment service after the U.S., which was first in September last year, and the UK, which got it in May.

Android Pay works with NFC-capable Android phones running KitKat 4.4 or higher, which has been running on most models released since mid-2014.

The Singapore debut of the service comes hot on the heels of competitors Apple Pay, which launched here in April, and Samsung Pay which started its Southeast Asia roll out two weeks ago in Singapore.

Like Apple and Samsung, which support the majority of banks here, Google has made sure its big launch day here came with the backing of large banks, too. Android Pay will support MasterCard and Visa cards from DBS/POSB, OCBC Bank, Standard Chartered and UOB.

MasterCard estimates this will cover some 30,000 contactless terminals islandwide.

How to start:

1. Download the Android Pay app on the Google Play Store.

2. Set advanced security options like fingerprint unlocking, if your device supports it.

3. Add your card(s).

4. At merchants' contactless terminals, wake the phone up and hold it over the reader. A checkmark will indicate when the transaction is successful.

Via Giphy

What's Android Pay's edge?

For one, reach. With Android Pay on many more devices dating back to those at least two years old, that's a lot more than Samsung Pay, which only supports the latest Samsung handsets.

And Android Pay also allows for easier in-app purchases, similar to what Apple Pay does. Apps which support it will allow users to check out purchases without having to leave the app.

Ng Zhi Ying, a Forrester researcher, told Mashable that neither Apple Pay nor Samsung Pay support loyalty card merchants yet, so Google could get the jump on the competition by linking those to its payment process.

Google noted that for its Singapore launch, it's been working with a couple of local rewards points programmes such as NTUC Link Plus! and CapitaLand's Capitastar to incorporate their rewards points, but it didn't note when the loyalty programmes would be fully supported by Android Pay.

Samsung has one trick up its sleeve.

But Samsung has one trick up its sleeve that neither Apple nor Google have: a technology it calls magnetic secure transmission (MST). It allows Samsung Pay phones to emit a magnetic signal that mimics the magnetic strip on a credit card.

That means Samsung Pay will work on older credit card machines, not just contactless ones, far broadening its reach.

Proper credit card integration with mobile phones marks a step forward for tap-to-pay transactions in Singapore, which over the years has had a smattering of fragmented contactless options available. These include the pre-paid EZ-Link commuter card -- which was recently supported by Samsung phones -- and mobile wallets like SingTel's Dash, which was made available Last November on Android phones.

EZ-Link and Dash are both supported at some convenience stores and supermarkets, but neither can count on as wide a support base as Visa's and MasterCard's terminals. Plus, you have to top up the wallets, making them cumbersome to use.

Visa said it already sees more than 2 million contactless payments made each month on its payWave cards in supermarkets here.

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