Back in November there were signs to suggest that Android Pay could be coming onto Android Wear devices. Now thanks to an exclusive interview with The Verge, Android Wear’s product manager Jeff Chang has confirmed that Android Wear users can look forward to using their smartwatches to pay for purchases in the future via Android Pay.
However this is only with the upcoming Android Wear 2.0 update which still has no release date yet, but it seems we can expect it in early 2017. Chang had previously confirmed that Google has two flagship Android Wear devices in the works and that following their release, we can look forward to the Android Wear 2.0 update as well, which back in September was confirmed to have been delayed to 2017.
Unfortunately not every Android Wear 2.0 device will support Android Pay as it will require devices to have the necessary hardware installed on it, such as NFC. Chang notes that the LG Watch Urbane 2nd Edition has the feature, and the new Android Wear devices will also have it. However for the time-being, Google isn’t making NFC a hardware requirement for its partners just yet.
Admittedly this is a bit limiting at the moment, but hopefully that will change in the future. In the meantime you can check out the list of devices that will be eligible for the Android Wear 2.0 update (but not necessarily Android Pay compatible).
Filed in . Read more about Android Pay, Android Wear and Google.