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Google's New Payment App For India Transfers Money Via Ultrasound (buzzfeed.com)

Posted by msmash on from the next-billion-users dept.

Pranav Dixit, writing for BuzzFeed News: Google's goal for the brand-new payments app it launched in India on Monday is simple yet ambitious: to get in on the action each time someone sends or receives money in its largest market outside the United States. The app is called Tez -- Hindi for "fast" -- and it lets users do three things: send money to people in their phones' address books, make payments to businesses (both online as well as in real-world mom-and-pop stores), and zap cash to anyone around them -- all without knowing bank account numbers or personal details. Tez is powered by UPI, short for Unified Payments Interface, a Indian government-backed payments standard that lets users transfer money directly into each other's bank accounts using just their mobile numbers, or a bank-issued payment ID that looks like an email address. It works a lot like Venmo does in the US, except that anyone can build their own payments app on top of UPI. Once you hit Pay or Receive, Tez detects other Tez users around you with a proprietary technology called Audio QR based on ultrasound, and pairs with their phones. Once a sender puts in the amount and authenticates with a preset PIN to confirm who they're sending money to, a transaction happens in seconds.

37 comments

  1. woooow fantastic by www.al-awa2el.com · · Score: 0

    woooow fantastic

    --
    ØرÙfØ© ØÙØ
  2. Difference between air waves and EM waves? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Is there really that much of a difference between air waves and EM waves? Both are modulations of some medium. Does the medium really matter?

    While we're on this topic, what are EM waves? I've heard enough different descriptions of them, but none of these descriptions are every very intuitive. For example, we know that sound waves travel through a physical medium such as air or water. It's the atoms making up these substances that are moving within the physical dimensions. But what do EM waves travel through? What is the medium?

    1. Re:Difference between air waves and EM waves? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      Plato would like you to stop stealing his arguments from 400BC.

    2. Re: Difference between air waves and EM waves? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Are they waves or aren't they particles, that is the question.

    3. Re:Difference between air waves and EM waves? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      What is the medium?

      Why, it's the message.

  3. I'm sure this will be great for people's hearing by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    no problems at all.

  4. The UPI is the big deal here! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    The significant bit here isn't the ultrasound tech, but the UPI. This is backed by the Indian Government, and is *free*. Here in the US, banks charge $10 for a wire transfer, which actually reduces the amount of work they need to do (as compared to a paper cheque, which is free). But then, this requires a government to work for the people, not the corporates.

    1. Re:The UPI is the big deal here! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Is there an undo mechanism in UPI? Who takes the loss in case of errors or fraud?

      e.g. you're paying for something, and completely accidentally had an extra 0 at the end of the amount. What if the merchant says "nope, dunno you, go away"?

    2. Re:The UPI is the big deal here! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I don't know which bank you're talking about, but I have a bank of America account and I can send and receive electronic payments for FREE!

    3. Re:The UPI is the big deal here! by sl3xd · · Score: 1

      Here in the US, banks charge $10 for a wire transfer,

      For a "wire transfer", perhaps (I recall doing that for the down payment on my mortgage) , but an ACH transaction is generally free.

      That's not to say that ACH isn't without issues, but the big issue in the US is cultural, rather than technological.

      A government-backed payment system would give the IRS a way to monitor payments, and makes it a lot easier to prosecute people with apparently untaxed income. Gotta keep those guys with accounts in the Cayman islands happy.

      --
      -- Sometimes you have to turn the lights off in order to see.
    4. Re:The UPI is the big deal here! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Here in the US, banks charge $10 for a wire transfer,

      For a "wire transfer", perhaps (I recall doing that for the down payment on my mortgage) , but an ACH transaction is generally free.

      Yep everyone one of my banks (like a smart person I use several to keep my eggs from being in one basket) ACH has always been free. Wire transfers cost money because unlike a check or ACH they clear in the same day.

    5. Re:The UPI is the big deal here! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      Most countries have forgotten the role of governments. Governments create *standards*, you know, things like currency, 220V outlet plugs, telephone number system, etc. UPI fits perfectly into that. More governments should standardize basic things. Like hailing a cab. Why does Uber have to corner the market? There are already plenty of taxis that are registered with the government. Seems like a no-brainer to create a free standard for taxis to find customers and vice-versa. The govt doesn't need to even build the app, just specify a standard oh how taxis will broadcast and how customers will ping. Instead, many countries touting "free-markets" are shirking the govt's duty to provide standards.

      Let private companies do what they do best: rapidly changing goods and services, like a new iPhone release every year. Let governments do what they do best: specify long-lasting standards that any individual or corporation can tie into and have compatibility for at least 10+ years.

    6. Re:The UPI is the big deal here! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Banks in India also use IMPS, NEFT or RTGS, three other payment methods that are backed by the government, that are also free of cost, work between any two banks, and clear in the same day (immediately, within minutes, or up to an hour, respectively).

    7. Re:The UPI is the big deal here! by Lennie · · Score: 1

      Normally I would agree, but the Indian government has some strange ideas about how money should be managed. A large percentage of cash was declared basically useless over night.

      http://www.independent.co.uk/n...

      --
      New things are always on the horizon
  5. Intelligence agencies are going to love this by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    This is active sonar for the human world. Good computers should allow spatial reconstruction of scene given just a few "pings". This is realtime 3d tracking of those with and without phones.

    If this becomes popular, "they" should be able to track nearly every human being in India.

    Given the deep power here, I'm betting it gets baked in deep to the next OS update.

    1. Re:Intelligence agencies are going to love this by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You know that sonar scene in The Dark Knight wasn't real, right? For that matter, if you want to track people location, you can just use the location provided by their phone.

    2. Re: Intelligence agencies are going to love this by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Carrier*

  6. Should I worry now asks Slumdawg Millionaire by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Google getting a little piece of the action is a hint of things to come. The government can now tax the global giant, and can slap a VAT on each transaction. Uh-oh; glad I haven't moved there.

  7. Pro Tip: by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    don't let an American company handle your payments, because they will suck up and distill every little bit of information they can, to their and the governments use.

  8. Tez? Apache says hi by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    https://tez.apache.org/

  9. India bankrupted by rogue dolphins by Dirk+Becher · · Score: 1

    So long, and thanks for all the cash!

  10. Is new hardware required? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Am I missing something? Is there a new chip and/or sensor required in a smartphone to transmit and receive ultrasound?

    1. Re:Is new hardware required? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Am I missing something? Is there a new chip and/or sensor required in a smartphone to transmit and receive ultrasound?

      I suspect that it is a sneaky little component that has been part of telephones since Alexander Graham Bell. I know that there are lots of two-thumbed people who keep busy on their phones but seem to be unaware that the phones have microphones, but that little device is in there.

      My Palm phones had those nifty I/R receiver/transmitters. My guess is that Google here was trying to find another way to make short-range communication where they aren't sure that any phone has I/R capabilities or that every phone can do NFC.

  11. Re:More importantly, will it let us do the needful by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Oh cool. I'd be able to pop out all my money to everybody using my Tez Dispenser.

    I guess I'd keep having to get refills, though.

  12. good bitcoin competitor but... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    only for indians? inflationary money? great as a currency, fast and widely accepted in india...

  13. Now your kids can buy stuff from Google Play by Ukab+the+Great · · Score: 1

    without your permission before they're even born.

  14. Re:Two birds with one stone! by unixisc · · Score: 1

    Except that in India, it's illegal to reveal to parents the gender of unborn children. So in that doctor's visit, they can show the ultrasound images of the fetus to the parents while getting simultaneously paid - w/o the parents realizing the latter }:-)

  15. Re:Is this ethical? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    racist

  16. Can they use this technology by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    to get people to poop in the toilet? That would be sweet. I don't know how else to solve this. Everything else humans normally respond to has not been working.

  17. Bank account and personal details by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    zap cash to anyone around them -- all without knowing bank account numbers or personal details.

    The payer and the receiver didn't know, but if both party used the Google payment app, you can be 100% sure that Google will know, track, and store it forever.