A report published today claims that Google is currently testing a new payment that’s contextually-aware, codenamed “Plaso,” the service is apparently being tested at some of the company’s offices in collaboration with businesses like Panera Bread and Papa John’s. It shouldn’t surprise most people to see that Google is working on a new payment system given that Wallet’s adoption hasn’t really been stellar and with Apple Pay just out the gate, the company might want to mount a tough competition against the new kid on the block.
The way this system is said to work is that a customer would go into a store and purchase something, or make a purchase on their smartphone before they actually get there, and then proceed to the cashier for payment.
The cashier will ask for their initials, then search for them in the Plaso interface which would run on a smartphone, once the initials are located the purchase will be billed through an as yet unknown method.
For the initials to be located in the interface the customer’s device has to be in Bluetooth range of the cashier’s, this will ensure that the customer really is present in the store, so one can say that the Bluetooth connection will also double as a mobile proximity identifier.
The report doesn’t say how payments will actually be processed, only that business owners will just need a smartphone to get onboard, so perhaps Google is going for a “middleware” approach that’s quite similar to what we have already seen with Square Wallet.
Google may not immediately dump its NFC-backed Wallet but at some point down the road Plaso could potentially come in as its successor.
As yet Google has not commented on or outright declined this report.