Google reportedly planning to revamp mobile payment offering at I/O with launch of ‘Android Pay’

Google is planning to overhaul its mobile payment system in May during its I/O developer conference, a new report suggests. Google recently purchased “some” technology from SoftCard, with several major US carriers planning to pre-load Wallet on all new phones in the coming months.

The revitalized payment software is being referred to as “Android Pay” by Ars Technica, and like Apple’s own similarly named product, it will support payments in physical retailers as well as in-app sales. The entire offering will take advantage of Host Card Emulation, which essentially presents the phone to an NFC terminal as a clone of the card.

Interestingly, Google Wallet will apparently continue to exist as a separate product, though some overlap may exist between the purpose of the two features. Both, for example, should allow users to make purchases through mobile shopping apps and NFC terminals.

Android Pay, it seems, will be more focused on providing payment options for developers. The main idea seems to be matching the feature set offered by Apple Pay.