As the Google Assistant continues on its wandering journey of adding new features, we’re getting an indication of the next new addition: payments. Users in the USA have begun to see a new menu option for ‘Payments’ showing up in the Google Account Settings section of Assistant settings.
As you can see in the above images, by enabling payments on Google Assistant you agree to allow all connected Assistant devices, such as the Google Home, to utilise the payment method. You’ll also notice that the set-up also enrols users into Google’s Google Express home delivery service.
While Google Express’s rollout is incredibly limited, and non-existent outside of the USA, this could well indicate that Google is about to enable 3rd party developers to request payment via a Google Assistant. With more Actions rolling out for Google Assistant it could be very usefully allowing developers to access a payment method that doesn’t require users to set up multiple payment systems, simply enrol once and pay for whatever you want.
While most of this is speculation it makes sense for Google to make this move before the ecosystem grows.
