Google has announced a new feature for its GMail Android app which allows users to send and receive money for free.
The feature, which is currently only available in the US, allows users to either send money as if it were an email attachment, or request money from others.
When sending money, the recipient doesn’t have to be registered with GMail – you can send to anyone with an email address, and they can arrange for the money to be paid straight into their bank account.
In either case, the transactions are free.
Sending money via GMail on a PC has been available for a while (in the UK too) thanks to Google Wallet, and despite the ability to send to anyone with an email address, I’ve yet to see it get much use – have you ever sent or received money through GMail? If so, let us know how you found the experience in the comments below.
Enabling the feature for Android devices may help payments via GMail grow faster, and will help Google compete against Facebook who are looking to get into payments via Messenger. This new feature for GMail on Android is currently only available in the US – there’s no word on when it will be available elsewhere yet.
I would be a bit skeptical about doing this. But I suppose we need to move with the times. I used to think PayPal would steal my money! But obviously it’s actually a safe payment method
Great blog post.
I know safety is really high with Android but is it really safe? I am using latest technologies but I am always worried: there are hackers out there and their can hack virtually anything, also Google know so much about us so giving them details of my banking is not something I would do if I did not have to. I lost some money with Paypal a few years ago , it was not much but I experience total lack of protection. They said it was their policies and they could not do anything about it. since it was a small amount I did not want to waste my time and energy but I have doubts with some of these conveniences.