Visa Token Service Which Powers Apple Pay Is Coming To All Major Mobile Platforms

Yesterday, Apple announced a new contactless payment technology and unique security features called Apple Pay. Here is how it works,

Now paying in stores happens in one natural motion — there’s no need to open an app or even wake your display thanks to the innovative Near Field Communication antenna in iPhone 6. To pay, just hold your iPhone near the contactless reader with your finger on Touch ID. You don’t even have to look at the screen to know your payment information was successfully sent. A subtle vibration and beep lets you know.

While this process looks incredibly simple, Apple alone didn’t make this possible. Visa, the global leader in payments, today announced the launch of Visa Token Service – an innovative technology that provides a secure environment to help drive innovation in online and mobile commerce.

Visa Token Service replaces sensitive payment account information found on plastic cards with a digital account number or “token”. Because “tokens” do not carry a consumer’s payment account details, such as the 16-digit account number, they can be safely stored by online merchants or on mobile devices to facilitate ecommerce and mobile payments.

For now, Visa Token Service will be available in the U.S. financial institutions followed by a phased roll-out overseas beginning in 2015 and this technology has been designed to support payments with mobile devices using all major mobile platforms. Yes, Microsoft can just develop an app supporting this Visa token service to make contactless payment experience in NFC included Windows Phone devices like Lumia 930, Lumia 1520, etc,. The only downside is that you need to open some app to authorize the payment since iPhone does it via TouchID (fingerprint reader).

Are you looking forward to this payment experience on Windows Phone devices?