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Google has launched a payment scheme in the United Kingdom that allows users to 'attach' money to emails via Gmail. The service, which mirrors the service launched in the United States in 2013, leverages the corporation's Google Wallet mobile payment service (which allows users to make payments from mobile phones) to facilitate payments.
The service is extremely simple - Google Gmail users click to add an attachment to an email. An interface emerges which allows users to add the amount that should be transferred to a recipient's Google Wallet account. The system also works when recipients do not have a Gmail account, but when money is sent the recipients need to open a Google Wallet account and associate it to a bank account to receive a payment. Money in a Google Wallet account can be stored for future use (as in a bank account) or used for Google services such as apps purchased through Google Play.
The service will be made available over the coming weeks and is available to UK Gmail users that are over 18 years of age. Its launch comes well in advance of Apple Pay's UK launch. "Whether you’re chipping in for lunch or reimbursing your housemate for your share of the rent, paying back your friends has never been so simple," explains Google UK's website promotion of the service. A video explaining the service is available on
YouTube.
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