Skip to main content
  1. Home
  2. Mobile
  3. News

Google’s Hands Free app lets you keep your phone in the pocket at the cashier

In San Jose this weekend? Grab a free McDonald's meal if you 'pay with Google'

By
It has been more than a year since Google unveiled Hands Free, a mobile-payment service that lets you leave your phone in your pocket. The search giant made the service available for
Recommended Videos
iOS and Android devices in March, and now it’s offering free meals for people who use it at participating McDonald’s in San Jose.

Hands Free can be a little confusing, considering that the company has been pushing Android Pay for the past year. Hands Free is unrelated, however, and utilizes different technology. Rather than requiring NFC to make tap-and-pay purchases, Hands Free uses Bluetooth low energy, Wi-Fi, and location to detect if you’re at a store that supports the service. That way, all you have to do at checkout is … well, nothing.

Apart from saying, “I’ll pay with Google,” or something of the sort, that is. The cashier will confirm your identity using your initials and a photo that you need to add to your profile in the Hands Free app.

Already it’s clear to see that this is by no means a service that will move rapidly throughout the world, let alone the U.S. It’s kind of like Google Fiber in that regard, since Google has to first find stores that are interested and make them compatible with its Hands Free service. Right now, you can only use Hands Free in South Bay, California, and specifically at McDonald’s, Papa John’s, and a few other local businesses Google hasn’t named. The app names the full list of stores, and will add new merchants to the list as the service expands.

From Friday through Sunday, beginning on July 15, you’ll be able to score a free meal at one of 47 McDonald’s locations in San Jose by using Hands Free. All you have to do, once you have the app installed, is walk up to the register and make an order, then say, “I’ll pay with Google.” You’ll just have to confirm the payment, and that’s it, you’re order is complete. To find out which McDonald’s are participating, take a look at the Hands Free app.

On the Hands Free website, Google says it is running early experiments that allow for visual identification, using an in-store camera to automatically confirm your identity. This means that Google will have a database of your image and credit card information — which is sure to put a few people off from using the service.

Then again, if you’re on Google’s services, the company likely already has that information. The firm says images and data from the in-store camera are deleted immediately, if that provides some relief, and can’t be accessed by the store or sent or saved to Google’s servers.

In case you’re worried about credit-card information as well, Google says the app never shares the full number with the store you pay at, and all the “details are stored securely and shared only with the payment processor.”

This type of payment service isn’t exactly new. Both PayPal and Square have attempted to implement similar technology as payment solutions, but neither really worked out. Perhaps with contactless payments growing, and with Google at the helm, Hands Free could succeed where its competitors have not.

Updated on 07-12-2016 by Julian Chokkattu: Added in information about a deal with participating McDonald’s.

Editors' Recommendations

Topics
Julian Chokkattu
Julian Chokkattu
Former Digital Trends Contributor
Julian is the mobile and wearables editor at Digital Trends, covering smartphones, fitness trackers, smartwatches, and more…
Google is launching a powerful new AI app for your Android phone
Google Gemini app on Android.

Remember Bard, Google’s answer to ChatGPT? Well, it is now officially called Gemini. Also, all those fancy AI features that previously went by the name Duet AI have been folded under the Gemini branding. In case you haven’t been following up all the AI development flood, the name is derived from the multi-modal large language model of the same name.

To go with the renaming efforts, Google has launched a standalone Gemini app on Android. Moreover, the Gemini experience is also being made available to iPhone users within the Google app on iOS. But wait, there’s more.

Read more
If you have one of these apps on your Android phone, delete it immediately
The app drawer on the Google Pixel 8 Pro.

The NSO Group raised security alarms this week, and once again, it’s the devastatingly powerful Pegasus malware that was deployed in Jordan to spy on journalists and activists. While that’s a high-profile case that entailed Apple filing a lawsuit against NSO Group, there’s a whole world of seemingly innocuous Android apps that are harvesting sensitive data from an average person’s phone.
The security experts at ESET have spotted at least 12 Android apps, most of which are disguised as chat apps, that actually plant a Trojan on the phone and then steal details such as call logs and messages, remotely gain control of the camera, and even extract chat details from end-to-end encrypted platforms such as WhatsApp.
The apps in question are YohooTalk, TikTalk, Privee Talk, MeetMe, Nidus, GlowChat, Let’s Chat, Quick Chat, Rafaqat, Chit Chat, Hello Chat, and Wave Chat. Needless to say, if you have any of these apps installed on your devices, delete them immediately.
Notably, six of these apps were available on the Google Play Store, raising the risk stakes as users flock here, putting their faith in the security protocols put in place by Google. A remote access trojan (RAT) named Vajra Spy is at the center of these app's espionage activities.

A chat app doing serious damage

Read more
How to use Android Recovery Mode to fix your phone or tablet
Pixel 3 recovery mode

Here's an unfun scenario: You've got one of the best Android phones or tablets, but things aren't working right. Typical virus scans and other troubleshooting fixes aren't working. It is time to use recovery mode. This mode allows you to reboot your system and get a fresh start without any viruses or other issues that were potentially causing you trouble.

Unfortunately, there's no one standard way to get into Recovery Mode. In other words, Samsung Galaxy phones and HTC phones have different pathways into the modes. Luckily for you, however, we have the most complete guide to entering Recovery Mode and you should be able to figure out how to get in on just about any device using the steps below.

Read more