A bit of digging around done by Android Police suggests that we may finally see tap-to-pay come to Android Wear. Evidence from the breakdown of the latest Google Play Services reveals code related to tap-to-pay, like: “Try holding your watch to the terminal again”.
Tap-to-pay uses NFC to transfer data to complete and verify a purchase at a till point terminal. This code points strongly to a tap-to-pay system.
Also found within the code is something that appears to be called “Instant Apps”. Instant Apps was shown off by Google for use on Android, where one can use an app without actually installing it. It’s particularly interesting to see it possibly come to Android Wear.
These developments come at a time when the state of the Android Wear environment does not look particularly healthy – Google has postponed the launch of AW 2.0 to 2017, with several companies also scaling back production.
Nevertheless, we’re confident that Android Wear will continue on just fine, with a little bit of help from these rumoured software features, of course.
