Google Play Store Spotted With UPI Payments Option in India: Report

Google Play Store has now added Unified Payments Interface (UPI) as a payment option for its users in India, according to a media report. Google Play Store in India currently supports credit cards, debit cards, net banking and carrier billing via Airtel and Vodafone, Google Play Gift Cards and Google Play Balance, and through other means like Google Rewards. Now, with a new version of Google Play, a UPI payments option has been spotted.

With Google Play Store v16.3.37, users have begun spotting UPI as an option, XDA Developers reported on Sunday. Unfortunately, we were not able to verify the existence of the UPI payment option, despite sideloading the desired version. Perhaps it is a server-side switch that Google has yet to flip for all users, and, the company has since then released a more recent version of Google Play – v16.4.15. Even with this version, we were unable to see the UPI payment option. Do let us know if you were able to see the payment option in the comments section below.

Since it began operations in 2016, UPI has now been adopted by most apps and services as one of the approved payment methods, which also includes Google’s own digital payment app Google Pay (formerly known as Google Tez).

UPI now has 141 Indian banks on board and users from those banks can reportedly use this mode to purchase apps from the Google Play Store. While using UPI, users need not share their card details directly with Google, and instead can make do with their UPI IDs.

However, UPI still requires a PIN to complete the transaction but the smaller limits allowed by the service reduces the quantum of abuse, if there is any chance of it, the report added