MasterCard and Visa announc NFC payment support through KitKat’s host card emulation feature

February 19, 2014

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With KitKat, Google introduced host card emulation (HCE) as a means to get around needing access to a secure element, which would allow Google Wallet and other potential mobile payment options to work on devices running Android 4.4, regardless of what US carriers wanted. So far, Google Wallet has been the only app to take advantage of this, but today both Visa and MasterCard have announced support for NFC payments with Google's newly introduced methods.

It won't let you ditch your plastic cards just yet, but it does mean that both companies will likely be pushing for mobile payment options from banks and retailers, which has been the other major roadblock in standardizing NFC payments. Visa has updated their payWave options to support HCE, and MasterCard plans on releasing tools for enabling HCE payments in the first half of the year.

2014 might just be the year that mobile payments really take off.

source: Business Wire Visa

Business Wire MasterCard

via: Android Police

Jared Peters Author

Born in southern Alabama, Jared spends his working time selling phones and his spare time writing about them. The Android enthusiasm started with the original Motorola Droid, but the tech enthusiasm currently covers just about everything. He likes PC gaming, Lenovo's Moto Z line, and a good productivity app.