Google Tez Pilots Chat Feature In India

Google Tez, the India-based payment application that runs on the United Payments Interface, has added a chat feature to its digital payment platform.

According to a report in The Economic Times citing a Google spokesperson, Google is aiming to take on WhatsApp with the chat feature, which it’s piloting with some users in India.  Google Tez lets consumers send money to each other and now have a conversation around the payment.

“We’ve added a feature to Tez that allows you to send simple messages back and forth to your contacts about the payments you make,” a Google spokesperson told The Economic Times. The report noted that Google is slowly rolling out the chat feature, so not all users have it at the start. The idea behind the chat function is to eventually make it as easy as sending a message to conduct a payment transaction. It’s also aimed at avoiding bank account numbers.  A chat function is also seen as a way to track the history of transactions and improve the overall experience of using Google Tez, noted the report.

In November, Paytm, India’s largest digital payment service, rolled out Paytm Inbox, which enables users to have chats around their transactions as well as make conversations between consumers and merchants easier, reported The Economic Times.

In the fall of 2017, Google India launched Tez, which connects directly to a user’s bank account and works with the United Payments Interface, which means it will integrate with any bank in the region that supports UPI. In addition to sending money, there’s Tez Shield, an always-active security feature designed to prevent fraud or hacking, as well as Tez Scratch Cards, which offer all Tez users the chance to win up to 1,000 rupees per week, or 100,000 rupees on “lucky Sundays.”

Tez also supports the Bharat BillPay system, which enables the mobile payment app to send users an alert when their bills are due. Users can pay the bill by tapping the biller’s name on the Tez home screen.