Do You Need Hands To Buy A Big Mac?

Tech giant Google Inc GOOG GOOGL is testing a new app that would allow shoppers to make payments using only their voices. The technology of hands-free payment could soon be making the check-out process a breeze.

How It Works

Once customers have downloaded Google’s hands-free payment app on their phone, all they would have to do to make a payment is to stand in front of the cash register and say their name to the cashier. A Bluetooth sensor would detect the app and bill the customer.

Although details of the process are not yet clear, Time speculates that the Bluetooth sensor would identify that the phone is nearby at the time of the purchase. Users will also receive a phone notification when a purchase is made.

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Work In Progress

When discussing the technology at its annual developers conference in San Francisco on Thursday, Google emphasized that the app is currently still in the testing phase.

Google has partnered with McDonald’s Corporation MCD and Papa John’s International Inc PZZA to experiment with the technology in Bay Area restaurants.

Evolution Of Payment

The evolution of payment has been drastic over the past few decades. Advances in technology continue to make transactions more secure and convenient.

After a mass transition from cash to credit cards, the next big wave will likely be mobile payment using technology such as Bluetooth, voice recognition and/or fingerprint identification security.

Battle Over Mobile Payment

Google and competitor Apple Inc. AAPL are battling fiercely over mobile payment market share. Google’s recently-launched Android Pay mobile payment system is a thinly-veiled answer to Apple Pay, which has quickly gained more mainstream traction than Google’s previous mobile payment platform, Google Wallet.