How to use Google's new UPI-based Tez payments app

Moneycontrol News 

Google launched its Tez payments app on Monday, and it allows users to make payments directly from bank accounts without the need for creation of an intermediary wallet.

“Send money to friends, instantly receive payments directly to your bank account & pay the nearby café with Tez, Google's new digital payment app for India,” reads the app’s description on Google Play Store.

Tez uses the United Payments Interface (UPI) that powers multiple accounts into one single mobile application, therefore merging several banking features, seamless fund routing and merchants payments under one hood.

How does Tez work?

# Tez uses NPCI’s (National Payments Corporation of India) UPI for money transfers within the app.

# The company asks users to enter the bank account details and verify their ownership.

# This can be done by quickly sending a text message from the registered phone number (linked to the bank account) through the Google Tez app’s interface.

# After verification, Google prompts users to add a UPI pin so that they can start making the payments.

# Google Tez’s "Cash mode" helps transfer money to others, uses audio waves to detect people near you and lets you pay/receive money once the user is located.

# Users are also allowed to easily track their past transactions, which have been designed like chat messages in a bid to be user-friendly.

# The company has also introduced "Tez Scratch Cards" which can be worth anything between Re 1 to Rs 1,000 but the transactions have to be over Rs 50 to be eligible for one.

#  The app also has an inbuilt “Tez shield” that encrypts and secures all your transactions and involves Google’s multi-layered security that offers protection round the clock.

# The payments can be made either by scanning a QR code or through the UPI ID.

# It has been made available in nine Indian languages for now and it can run on both Android and iOS devices.

To incentivise Tez app users and increase its user base, Google is offering users Rs. 51 for referring new users to use the app.

Google has also announced ‘Tez for Business’ that lets merchants get their own business channel in a bid to showcase different offers to consumers apart from making or receiving payments.

Over the last one year, the payments space in India has seen a lot of developments with several large players such as Amazon, Flipkart and cab aggregator Uber elbowing for space.

Several other apps that support UPI-based payments include NCPI’s own app BHIM, Flipkart's Phone pe Wallet, Truecaller, Hike and cab-hailing app Uber.

Some upcoming features that will be made available on the Tez app are payments through debit and credit cards and DTH bill payments.

Google's earlier attempts such as Google Wallet and Android Pay are popular among customers but they are struggling behind Apple Pay and Samsung Pay globally.

Google’s rivals Facebook and Amazon are also fighting to get a bigger chunk of India’s digital payments pie.