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Comment by kyrra | Hacker News Reader

Googler, opinions are my own. I work on payments.

Google does not allow apps within the app store to present their own payment method, except for Spotify which is part of some trial right now.

I could definitely see shady apps within the stores collecting payment info from users that then use those cards as if they were still on. If people get used of apps collecting payment information on all different kinds of UX, they will likely be more willing to type in their information into any app, leading to a higher chance of stolen payment information.

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I think you're misunderstanding the EU's problem with Apple Pay, because like Google, Apple's branding around this is stupid.

The EU has a problem with Apple forcing everyone who wants to make contactless payments over NFC to use Apple Pay by not giving any other app access to the required NFC APIs, unlike Android which does allow alternatives to Google Pay. This has nothing to do with the "pay online with Google/Apple Pay" or "manage your Android/iOS app subscriptions with Google/Apple Pay", besides the fact that the service is named the same and uses the same underlying bank card data you give it.

> Google does not allow apps within the app store to present their own payment method

Does this apply to NFC as well? On Android, if an app wants to use NFC for payment that is not processed through Google Pay, can it exist on the Google Play store?

If I'm understanding you correctly, yes, there are alternative NFC payment apps to Google Pay, like Samsung Pay and various bank-specific apps. My main traditional bank doesn't support Google or Apple Pay, and you need to pass through an app of theirs for NFC payments, and you can even set it as the default app for NFC payments ( that's the extent to which Google allow alternative NFC payment apps).

To add a late caveat to my previous statement. There are cases around physical goods where Google does not take a cut for enough purchases ( and allows these companies to use their own payment processors). This applies to things like Uber and Lyft, and buying things through the Amazon app that gets shipped to.

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