Electronic payment giant Paypal has taken their money transferring tech a step further with a new Android app which uses NFC technology, allowing the transfer of a payment between two phones simply by touching the two together.
NFC, or Near Field Communications, is a technology similar to Bluetooth yet much simpler. The premise of “pairing” two mobile devices is still there though the pairing process is much simpler, usually involving briefly touching the two together, or pointing a device’s camera at a “trigger”.
Paypal has utilised this NFC technology to create a way of sending Paypal payments by simply touching two Android phones together. In the demonstration video below we see two Samsung Nexus S smartphones used to create a Paypal transfer.
A specially designed Paypal widget can be added to the homescreen of each phone – this is where the rather simple process starts and ends. Tap the widget and you’ll get a pop-up box prompting you to enter the amount you wish to transfer. Once you’ve chosen how much you want to send, place the back of your phone against the back of the payment recipient’s phone and wait for a short vibrate to indicate a successful payment. When the connection is made, all you have to do is enter a PIN number on your screen to confirm the payment. Very simple!
NFC is a technology becoming increasingly popular with mobile phone manufacturers. It is set to feature in forthcoming Blackberry and Nokia smartphones, and is already used in the Nokia N9 and 360 speaker accessory.
You can check out Paypal’s video demonstration of the widget in action below. We expect to see it go live on Android smartphones in a few months time.
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