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Google Is Testing Voice-Activated Payment App, Hands Free (cnet.com)

Posted by BeauHD on from the I'll-pay-with-google dept.

New submitter eedwardsjr writes: If you've ever wanted to pay just by saying something out loud, then Hands Free is the way to go. Google has released to the public a new app called Hands Free, which lets people pay for items in stores by simply telling the cashier, "I'll pay with Google." The app, available for Android and iOS, is only being piloted in a few locations in the San Francisco area, including some McDonald's and Papa John's restaurants. Hands Free works by tracking your location using Wi-Fi and other sensors in your smartphone to detect whether you're near a participating store. After you say "I'll pay with Google," the cashier confirms your identity by using your initials and the photo you've loaded onto the Hands Free app.

5 of 50 comments (clear)

  1. Just keep saying "Google" by rainwalker · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Why do all of their voice-activated prompts require me to repeat the name of the corporation, over and over? I already know I'm using a Google phone, it says so right at the top of every screen, and I have to say their name every time I want to use voice search anyway. It's kind of creepy.

    1. Re:Just keep saying "Google" by penguinoid · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Why do all of their voice-activated prompts require me to repeat the name of the corporation, over and over?

      Probably so that the on-device voice recognition can recognize you're talking to it, so that it doesn't have to send a live feed of your microphone to Google HQ, and also so it doesn't randomly hear commands in your regular speech.

      --
      Don't waste your vote! Vote for whoever you want, unless you live in a swing state it won't matter anyways
  2. "I'll stay with Judy" by rmdingler · · Score: 4, Insightful

    What could go wrong with voice-activated dollars departing my wallet?

    --
    Happiness in intelligent people is the rarest thing I know.

    Ernest Hemingway

  3. speaking to computers is annoying by PhantomHarlock · · Score: 5, Insightful

    There's nothing more annoying than speaking trite phrases to a machine as if it were a human. Especially if you're an introvert. You just want to type it or a push a button.

    I never use voice anything, and I have it on my phone and in my car. I tried the car thing the first few days I had it and it felt so stupid talking to the thing and it was so slow I wanted to punch it.

    The worst is voice based tree menus on corporate voice jail systems. Please let me punch numbers.

  4. Re:Crazy pills by DogDude · · Score: 4, Insightful

    The problem they're trying to fix is how to skim money off the top of every transaction a user makes.

    --
    I don't respond to AC's.