Free Newsletter

FEATURES >> The top 10 U.S. carriers in Q1 | CTIA 2012: Winners and losers

Related Topics >> PayPal | M-Commerce | Android | Near Field Communications

PayPal for Android 3.0 adds NFC-enabled P2P capabilities

November 9, 2011 — 10:07am ET | By Jason Ankeny

eBay-owned PayPal first announced plans to bring peer-to-peer payment capabilities to the Android app in July. Writing on the PayPal Blog, the company's mobile applications product experience manager Shimone Samuel states that the new Request Money bump service is available across all NFC-enabled Android smartphones, not just the Samsung Nexus S, the sole Android device that supports the rival Google Wallet payment platform. "You and a friend will each need any NFC-enabled Android phone and the PayPal app with the Request Money widget installed," Samuel writes. "Requesting money is a simple process: just enter an amount, and then tap phones. Once your friend receives the request they simply enter their password to send money."

PayPal for Android 3.0 also features a redesigned landing screen, a simplified process for sending money and auto-complete features based on the phone's address book. The app is now available for download from Google's Android Market.

Last week, eBay CEO John Donahoe said the PayPal subsidiary will handle more than $3.5 billion in mobile payments in 2011. In September, PayPal took the wraps off a series of new payment technologies the commerce platform's president Scott Thompson calls "a one-stop shop for merchants to engage their customers directly during every part of the shopping lifecycle." Writing on the PayPal Blog, Thompson did not delve into technological specifics, but stated the company plans to make digital commerce solutions available across all devices, not just mobile phones, and offer funding options as well as geo-targeted mobile advertising campaigns, barcode scanning tools, real-time inventory data and a virtual wallet concept.

For more:
- read this PayPal Blog entry