Google Pay transactions can now be authenticated via a second fingerprint or facial recognition scan, instead of a biometric and PIN format. The latest update is a result of Google adding the Biometrics API to the Android 10 framework, thereby allowing Google's popular payments app, which so far allows you to pay or transfer money to peers through its interface, to authenticate these transactions through either a fingerprint scan, or a facial scan. So far, transactions on Google Pay could only be authenticated through an old school PIN, or even a pattern.
However, according to reports, the feature will only come to devices running Android 10 right now, since this is a direct result of Google adding biometrics support to the Android 10 app framework. News18 could not independently verify as of now whether the additional layer of UPI PIN would still apply, once a transaction request is verified using biometric data. Given that the UPI PIN implementation is a core feature of the entire transaction, and not specific to Google Pay, it is possible that in India, the additional layer of using a PIN would still remain.
Seeing how Android 9 is the most popular version of Android right now, it is likely that Google may bring this to Android 9 devices as well, hence increasing the number of devices that can soon use biometrics to transact via Google Pay. The feature is now live on Google Pay's latest app version, updated to v2.100. While the authentication feature is enabled by default, users will need to access Settings, head over to the 'Sending Money' tab, and enable biometric authentication from here. This will allow the app to verify the hard-coded biometric data locally on hardware, hence presenting a safer way to transact money.
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