Google has integrated a chat option in the Google Tez application and is slowly rolling it out to its 13.5 million active users, taking the competition directly to WhatsApp that is piloting its payment product in India.
The payment application which runs on the Unified Payments Interface railroads will now allow consumers to not only send money to each other but also open up an option for conversation around the transaction.
āWeāve added a feature to Tez that allows you to send simple messages back and forth to your contacts about the payments you make,ā said a Google spokesperson confirming the move. Not all users have yet got their hands on the chat option since the company is slowly rolling out the product.
Giving some context on the move, the company said that the ultimate aim of Tez is to make transactions as simple as sending messages, which can help consumers avoid complicated bank account numbers and wait for them to be added as beneficiaries.
In that broader scheme of things, a chat option eventually will help consumers track their transaction history like a conversation and improve the customer experience.
The move from payments to chat also happened for the countryās largest payments platform Paytm which introduced Paytm Inbox in November. The platform also wanted to bring in the ease of a conversation between the merchants and the consumers besides facilitating payments.
