Android Pay teams up with PayPal in the US.

Android Pay has steadily been adding support for more and more banks in the past few months, but soon there's going to be another partner for Google's payment system: PayPal.

Support for PayPal accounts is coming to Android Pay in the US "within the next few weeks". You'll be able to initiate the pairing of your PayPal account to your Android Pay account from either of the eponymous mobile apps for Android.

hen when you make a payment through Android Pay, your PayPal account's balance will be used. At some point in the coming months PayPal will add the ability to use the cards that you have stored on its service. When this functionality becomes live, you'll essentially be able to add your card to PayPal (if it's unsupported directly in Android Pay), and when you pay for something with the Android Pay app the money will go from that card to PayPal to Google to the store you're purchasing from - all in one seamless fell swoop.

This will work wherever Android Pay is accepted - in-store, in-app, and online.

Android Pay gains support for 18 more banks

In total, 18 more banks have made it to the list. The names include Bank of Stockton, Boundary Waters Bank, Citizens Bank of the South, Country Bank for Savings, Countryside Bank, First Green Bank, First State Bank of the Florida Keys, and Indiana University Credit Union.

Android Pay's list of supported banks/financial institutions has been growing at a rapid rate. Last month, the service's list of supported banks in the US crossed the 600 mark. And now, some more names have been added to the list.

The rest of the names are Greenfield Cooperative Bank, Maquoketa State Bank, McFarland State Bank, The Conway National Bank, The Infirmary Federal Credit Union, Barksdale Federal Credit Union, Florence Savings Bank, J.S.C. Federal Credit Union, O Bee Credit Union, and Security State Bank Of Hibbing.

Android Pay's support for PayPal starts rolling out.Technewnows

Not only this, Google has also updated its Android Pay US help page, adding PayPal as an option in Supported accounts & services category.

Over a month after it was officially announced, Android Pay's support for PayPal has started rolling out. Some users in the United States are seeing PayPal as a payment option in their Android Pay app.

The listing reveals that the mobile payments service currently supports all PayPal-linked debit cards or bank accounts. However, linked credit cards aren't yet supported.

Android Pay to support PayPal cards and Visa Checkout, v1.13 APK teardown reveals.

Android Pay has recently been updated to version 1.13, and while this didn’t add many new changes to the payment app’s interface or otherwise, an APK teardown reveals more about the future capabilities of Android Pay. The mobile payment app will (at some time in the future) allow users to add their PayPal cards and the ability to support Visa Checkout.

Thanks to a deal previously established between PayPal and Discover, places where Discover is normally accepted would enable these terminals with PayPal support. A similar deal returned the favor which allows PayPal access to Discover’s tokens, which are needed to accept contactless payment services, i.e. Android Pay.

At the end of the day, what the latter means is that Android Pay would start supporting PayPal (and/or PayPal cards) thanks to Discover’s tokens which create virtual account numbers for transactions. The code string found in the APK teardown reads: "A virtual Discover account was used to make this purchase". It doesn’t specifically mention ‘PayPal’, but this is implied.


Moving on to Visa Checkout, whose partnership was announced back in October alongside Masterpass, it allows Visa card holders to pay merchants without disclosing any credit card information. So basically like PayPal for Visa cards. The corresponding string of text that refers to Visa Checkout is the following: "This number was issued by %1$s. It’s used when you make purchases with Visa Checkout in Android Pay.”

As more services and banks are added to Android Pay and other various mobile payment services, we are slowly but surely moving past the need to use our own physical credit cards to make payments. Now it’s a matter of widely adopting new terminals to accept mobile payments.

PayPal support comes to Samsung Pay Technewnows

Samsung has added PayPal as a payment method "Users simply add their PayPal account to Samsung Pay, and can then spend the balance anywhere Samsung Pay is accepted," the South Korean tech giant said in a press release.

Samsung has added PayPal as a payment method in its mobile payments service Samsung Pay. Effectively, Pay users can now use their PayPal balance to make purchases anywhere - in-app, online and in eligible stores.

Currently, the feature is only available in the United States, but the company says it will expand to other countries soon - specific markets and exact timeframes, however, weren't revealed.

This comes just a few months after Google announced that it's teaming up with PayPal for Android Pay in the US. The feature started rolling out in the country in May.

Facebook launches Messenger Kids for Android. Technewnows

Facebook's modified Messenger Kids app is now available on Android, having been already available on iOS and Amazon Fire tablets. The application is aimed at 6- to 12-year old children and lacks in-app purchases or Hide options so that parents can have more control over any unsolicited messages.

The app gives kids the ability to have more fun, the listing on the Play Store claims. Facebook added kid-appropriate stickers, GIFs, frames and emojis to help kids “creatively express themselves.” There are also one-to-one video calls with interactive AR masks.

Unlike the regular Messenger app, the Kids version does not ask for a phone number or need a Facebook account. Parents and approved grown-ups can use their profiles to verify the Kids account and can also check up what is going on through the regular Messenger.

Kids can block contacts and report inappropriate content in the app. When they do that, the parent or guardian will be notified.

Paytm floats two new insurance entities TechNewNows

The two entities—Paytm Life Insurance Ltd and Paytm General Insurance Corp. Ltd—registered with the RoC, indicate that the firm will look at offering differentiated insurance products

Digital payments firm Paytm, owned by One97 Communication Ltd, has registered two new insurance units with the Registrar of Companies (RoC), implying a foray into standalone insurance products.

The two entities—Paytm Life Insurance Ltd, and Paytm General Insurance Corporation Ltd— registered on 21 February, indicate the company will look at offering differentiated insurance products like health insurance, motor insurance and others.

According to the RoC documents that were sourced from data intelligence platform Paper.VC, the company has three directors One97 founder Vijay Shekhar Sharma, senior vice president-Paytm Shankar Nath and Paytm chief financial officer Madhur Deora.Mint could not ascertain the ownership structure of the company. Paytm declined to comment.

As per regulatory norms, non-life insurance and general insurance products require separate registrations.

Mint reported in November 2016 that One97 planned to sell products such as loans, insurance and wealth management to drive revenues. Paytm was in active talks with banks to offer financial products like insurance, loans and mutual funds to Paytm Payments Bank account holders.


Paytm Payments Bank started operations in May last year, with its first branch in Noida. It offers a zero-balance savings account with facilities like online transactions, debit card and a 4% per annum interest on deposit of up to Rs lakh.

In January, the company launched a new investment arm named Paytm Money Ltd to offer investment and wealth management products. It also pledged to invest close to $10 million upfront in the new entity. Paytm Money is yet to get approval from the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi).

Paytm Money is the fourth product from One97 after its online shopping product Paytm Mall, Paytm Payments Bank and Paytm wallet. Paytm’s owner One97 was valued at over $7 billion in May 2017 when the company raised $1.5 billion from SoftBank. The company currently has over 200 million registered users on its platform