Android Pay to launch this week, say leaks

Leaked McDonald’s email suggests Google’s payment system will launch August 26

Android Pay is demonstrated during the 2015 Google I/O conference on May 28, 2015 in San Francisco, California (Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)

Android Pay is set to launch this week, letting users of Google’s mobile operating system pay with just their phones.

The service will go live on August 26 in the US, according to a leaked message from McDonald’s. Google hasn’t yet indicated when it will launch Android Pay in the UK.

Android Pay is Google’s own competitor to payment systems launched by a range of companies, including Apple and Samsung. They all aim to turn phones into a contactless credit card, letting people pay by touching the handset on a reader — and allowing them to leave their phones at home.

Google announced Android Pay at its I/O event three months ago. But it hasn’t given a firm date of when it will actually launch, only saying that it would launch sometime this year.

The McDonald’s message — which was leaked by Android Police — says also says that Samsung Pay would launch on August 21. That isn’t correct, but is the launch date of the new phones that will support it, and so could have been a mistake on McDonald’s part rather than a reason to suggest that the Android launch date will also be wrong.

Android Pay seems to have been seeing a gradual roll-out into shops in recent weeks, according to local reports.