Well, this is interesting. It's being piloted in the South Bay, and "is rolling out to a small number of McDonald’s, Papa John’s, and local eateries in the area." This is the same thing that Square used to offer (and may still), though I haven't really seen merchants offer it recently. Previously I would use Square's geofencing to checkout at places like Sightglass Coffee without presenting my card or phone for payment.
This part is particularly curious: At select stores, we’re also in the early stages of experimenting with visual identification so that you can breeze through checkout even faster. This process uses an in-store camera to automatically confirm your identity based on your Hands Free profile picture. All images captured by the Hands Free camera are deleted immediately.
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@chrismessina This is super interesting- thanks for sharing. Currently there's way too much friction in the payment process and Google are struggling IMHO to really break through into payments. Even Apple Pay seems to be only slowly gathering momentum... It would be really cool to not have to do anything to pay. Phone geofence as a way to narrow down the people and provide the first identity factor, then facial recognition as the second factor. SMS / Push notifications to prevent fraud? I guess the BIG unanswered question is how this integrates with POS. Square have a natural advantage there controlling the end-to-end experience whereas many retailers are on legacy systems...
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This really sucks 😟 my team and I have been working on this same exact workflow and technology payment system for more than a year. Than to wake up and see Google have exactly our same workflow and almost exactly the same copy that's on our site. This blows
@duran_tech I can imagine that is a disappointing feeling, but remember that lots of people have similar ideas and it's more than just the idea that makes something successful. It's about the team and how you execute on your vision and deal with all of the issues that come up through the process of growth. Even big companies that have great people have trouble growing new product lines. Don't give up and stay focused.
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Been using it for a while here in the southbay and must say it is super convenient to simply say your name and the charge goes through. Highly recommend to try it if you are around & excited to see more locations having this.
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