As you might already know, Google has launched a new digital payments app – dubbed Tez – today (read more about it here). One feature of Tez that stands out is Cash Mode, which allows users to pay other Tez users without sharing sensitive personal information like bank account or phone number.
The way Cash Mode works is, you just need to bring the two phones near to each other, and enter your UPI PIN code. That’s it. The payment then instantly goes from one bank account to another. Cool, right? But how does it all work?
The Mountain View, California based company explains that the Cash Mode feature is built using their proprietary AQR (Audio QR) technology, which uses sound to pair one device with the other nearby device.
While Google doesn’t provide in depth details about Audio QR, it does say the tech is “similar to QR codes but more convenient and more secure.” While other popular payments services like Android Pay require the phone to have an NFC chip (found mostly in high-end, expensive phones), AQR doesn’t have any such requirement.
In fact, Google says AQR works on almost any smartphone in India, whether Android or iOS. Reason being, all it requires is the device to have a speaker and a microphone, that are a given for phones nowadays.
Dr. Aparajita Sharma
1227 Posts
Currently, I am pursuing Ph.D (Psychology), and have been teaching the same for past four years. Coming to PiunikaWeb, I know it was a complete switch over, but the idea was appealing enough to put in all the effort it called for. My work primarily involves research. Oh, and yes, some of the photographs you see here are clicked by me. Overall, I am enjoying whatever I am doing, and hoping you’ll also feel the same reading all my articles. You can find me on LinkedIN.
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