Earlier this week, the Google Play store was spotted displaying Unified Payments Interface (UPI) for its users in India. Before that, the app did not support the option for UPI payment as an alternative option, but now the software technology giant Google has officially announced the addition of UPI as an alternative payment option on the Google Play Store users in the country. Earlier it only accepted payments via credit cards, debit cards, net banking, carrier billing via Airtel and Vodafone, Google Play Gift Cards and Google Play Balance.
The new payment option was spotted on Google Play Store v16.3.37. The most recent version also did not show the payment option. But now the company says that the UPI payment option will show up in the coming weeks. From now onwards for purchasing apps, games, and in-app content the users can use the UPI app of their choice like BHIM, Google Pay, Paytm and PhonePe for making payments.
To use the UPI payment option the user must link their UPI ID (VPA) in Google Play Store Billing in order to make payments directly from their bank account using the method. At present the Google Pay users have to share their card details with Google from now on the users can use their UPI ID so as to make payments to purchase an app from the Google Play Store.
Head of Google Play Retail and Payments Activation, Saurabh Agarwal stated, “Indian app developers are already building successful businesses on the Google Play Store offering a range of great apps across categories, and we are committed to helping them grow. One way to make this happens is to make it even easier for people to pay for apps and in-app content, which is why we are pleased to add Unified Payment Interface (UPI) as a new payment method to the existing roster of credit or debit card, net banking, direct carrier billing, and gift cards options.”
Unified Payments Interface (UPI) is an initiative by the Indian Government to promote digital payments. With the use of UPI, the users in India can transfer or make small payments via UPI transfer. Google’s Google Pay app that was earlier known as Google Tez is already supported by UPI in the country. The app accepts the UPI payment method in India.
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