PayPal Activates NFC Function For Android Phones

PayPal Inc. has delivered on its promise to activate contactless payments for its mobile wallet.

The eBay Inc. subsidiary said Nov. 8 on its blog that the latest update to its application for Android handsets adds support for Near Field Communication. PayPal, of San Jose, previewed its plans to do so in July (see story).

Using NFC, PayPal customers can exchange funds by tapping their phones against each other. The process is similar to the "bump" system PayPal uses on non-NFC phones, such as Apple Inc.'s iPhone. Such phones use a built-in accelerometer to detect the bump.

PayPal also updated some aspects of the app's interface.

Interestingly, eBay’s CEO doused some cold water on NFC shortly after PayPal’s July demonstration, suggesting large merchants will resist the unproven technology.

“While I think there will be experimentation with NFC, I don't think you’re going to see widespread adoption of NFC in the large merchants for quite a while until there are standards,” John Donahoe told analysts July 20 during eBay’s second quarter earnings conference call (see story).