In what has to be one of the stranger product launches for Google over the past few years, Android Pay was officially launched in the UK earlier today, ahead of Google I/O 2016. Google detailed the launch of Android Pay back in March, but gave no firm date on exactly when it’d be launching officially. Now, Google officially made Android Pay available in the UK, after an earlier misfire, and now the app is available to download in the Play Store, so long as your device is compatible, that is. Most devices from the past two years should be able to take advantage of Android Pay, and while it works online similarly to PayPal, but what about your bank accounts and credit cards.
For our readers across the pond wondering if they can use Android Pay, we’ll go over those that support it at the time of writing. Banks such as the Bank of Scotland, First Direct, the Halifax, HSBC, Lloyds Bank, M&S, MBNA and Nationwide. These were confirmed back in March when Google gave us more info, but Barclays, Natwest and RBS aren’t listed as being compatible right now. In the case of Barclays, this is down to the launch of their own mobile payments method on Android, but the other two could be launching soon. As for Credit Cards, those issued by the aforementioned banks should work just fine, but both Visa and MasterCard are onboard, so there’s a lot of room for improvement in terms of banks and credit cards being supported by Android Pay.
Getting everything set up is nice and simple with Android Pay, but at the time of writing there might be some hiccups in some stores as they get everything up and running. These names should cover the majority of users out there, and while it looks unlikely for Barclays to change their mind regarding Android Pay, there is hope for other banks out there and we’ll update this list as well as share the news later down the line when more banks sign on for the future. If you haven’t installed Android Pay yet, you can do so by clicking the big button below.