Google Tez has been updated to offer chat functionality also.
Google Tez was released by Google last September to bank on the growing market of digital transactions in India post the infamous demonization. The app was made specifically for India only and made use of the UPI payment interface. Even though it was late to the game, with players like PhonePe already having a large market share, its unique cashback scheme helped it become one of the biggest players in the market and by October 2017, it had achieved a user base of 7.5 million having completed 30 million transactions in that interval.
The app currently supports making payments through UPI ID, QR Code, Audio QR, which was a unique concept brought by them, and phone number. In the recent weeks, the app had gained the ability to make payments to 80 billers for private and public utility services like Reliance Energy, DishTV, Airtel.
And now taking cues from WeChat, chat functionality has been introduced. Though some are touting it as a move to counter PayTm after the latter introduced the functionality of instant messaging in its app, it is becoming obvious that most of these apps are trying to achieve the success and provide the functionality that WeChat has in China.
In the words of Google, it would allow sending simple messages back and forth between the two parties regarding the payment that had been made.
The button sits right next to the send or receives money in the Google Tez app and, just like most software releases, is being role dot in phases.
What impact this chat feature would have on Google Tez or PayTm Inbox, only time will tell, but as of now, both are trying to gain a foothold in a market that is quickly expanding and has a large potential for future growth.
