Google Hands Free allows you to make mobile payments with facial recognition

If you have been using, or are excited to try out mobile payments, you’re definitely going to get excited when you hear what Hands Free can do. Hands Free is a new app from Google that will literally allow you to pay for things with your face.

It sounds like a strange idea, but Google has actually made a working system where users can walk up to a cashier and say “I’ll pay with Google”, and the transaction is done.

The way it will work is your phone will be in your pocket, purse, wherever, and the store you walk into will automatically recognize you are there. It uses Bluetooth, Wi-Fi and location services from your phone to do this. Once you are ready to pay, say “I’ll pay with Google” and tell the cashier your initials. The store then verifies your identify by looking at a picture you previously uploaded. Some locations can make this transaction even easier by using in-store cameras that will verify your identity right away. However, Google says that all photos taken of you will be deleted immediately.

Google is currently testing out Hands Free in the South Bay region of San Francisco on iOS and Android. Google is even sweetening the deal by offering people in the area $5 off their first purchase if you test it out. The only catch is this is a limited rollout and the amount of places to accept it is even more limited. To start, only McDonald’s, Papa John’s, and some local eateries in the area will be participating.