OnePlus Launches OnePlus Pay NFC-Based Mobile Payment Service
OnePlus is a brand that is well known for its premium smartphones in a pocket-friendly budget. In the past few years, it has emerged as one of the best smartphone brands in the world with high-quality specs and devices. One of the major power behind OnePlus’s success is its software optimization. OnePlus realized that having a clean and useful software suite will make people stick to its devices, much like what Apple is doing. OnePlus is working hard to create an eco-system of apps and services for its OnePlus users. The latest addition to its eco-system is its new payment and digital wallet service OnePlus Pay.
The OnePlus Pay was first announced on 26th September last year during the OnePlus 7T and 7T Pro launch event. OnePlus didn’t share any details about the app except that the payment app would be called OnePlus Pay and that it would be launched ‘sometime next year,’ i.e. 2020. Now according to an article published on IT Home, the service is active in China. OnePlus is slowly pushing the update in China, and it will be available for almost all the OnePlus users in China in the coming weeks.
According to a post published on OnePlus China Forum, OnePlus began testing the app about half a year ago, and finally, the app is ready for users. For now, only OnePlus 7T and 7T Pro users running HydrogenOS (Chinese version of OxygenOS) will be able to avail this service. Other OnePlus models will follow soon in the coming months.
OnePlus says users can activate their OnePlus Pay wallet and Payment service by going to the Wallet app and entering necessary banking details. Currently, this app only supports a few banking cards. Those banking cards are saving cards from Guangfa Bank, Minsheng Bank, Pudong Development Bank, and credit cards from Guangfa Bank and Pudong Development Bank.
OnePlus Pay is an NFC-Based app, and users can make quick payments by tapping on POS’s that support NFC payments. Apparently, OnePlus Pay is much faster than established Chinese mobile payment giants such as Alipay and WeChat.
With the launch on OnePlus Pay, OnePlus has joined an exclusive club of OEM smartphone manufacturer with its own payment app. Only Apple, Samsung, and LG had their own payment app, and now OnePlus joins the list as well.
The service is currently in its infancy with only a few users in china and only supports a few Chinese banking cards. It is speculated that OnePlus may soon launch similar payment services in India and the USA.
It will be interesting to see how users react to this new payment service from OnePlus. It will also interesting to see what other app and services OnePlus come up with to create an eco-system, much like Apple.
