Google has ambitious plans to extend the reach of Tez digital payment app it announced for the Indian market on Monday. The company said it has partnered with several phone makers to pre-install the Tez app on their smartphones.
Upcoming smartphones from Nokia, Micromax, Lava, Panasonic, and Xolo will come with the Tez app preloaded. At least some of these companies, including Lava, will also roll out the app on "most of their existing Android smartphones," a Google representative told Gadgets 360.
Diana Layfield, VP of Google's Next Billion programme said the company is open to conversation with more smartphone makers who would like to participate in this programme. Feature phones won't be getting Tez app as UPI doesn't work on such handsets, the executive said. However, this isn't strictly true - NPCI had unveiled USSD-based framework at the time of the BHIM launch. The said framework is a bit buggy to be sure, failing as often as working.
Google's Tez app is the first payments app from the company for the Indian market. The company said its app has been simplified to a level that it can convince users to ditch cash, the most popular payment method in the country.
The company executive also said that Android Pay won't be coming very soon to India. "There are many challenges with Android Pay right now and we are trying to sort them out," Layfield said. The executives said the focus is on India at present.
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