I swear I searched the forum to make sure this wasn't beat into the ground already.

I went to a McDonalds the other day in the SF Bay Area (don't judge) and there was a sign from Google saying to download their iOS app called "Hands Free" for payment and to just say "I want to pay with Google" and a free $5 credit appears first use.

So I did that, you put in your credit card number and picture of yourself. Using location services it knew I was at that McDonalds and that Google Hands Free payment was accepted.

Arrived at the register and muttered "Um, I want to pay with Google?" and the clerk said "What are your initials?" She typed in my two initials and bong - the app had a pop-up saying I had just paid using Google Hands Free and my Amex sent an alert saying there was a matching charge.

The clerk said "you look just like your picture!" so I guess when they enter your initials a picture shows up so they can make sure the buyer kinda sorta looks like the person on the account.

I gotta say it was pretty painless and I'm sure some of you are going to jump in and say Google is now going to steal my children but if you didn't have a device that supported NFC payments, this sure worked well.

I didn't get a view of what the register showed on her side but obviously it has some special mojo software to be able to show a picture and handle the Google payment process. This will probably be the severely limiting factor in proliferation.

You can download the app in the app store ("Google Hands Free") and there seems to only be a handful of places around here that accept it but it sure worked slick.

Anyone else give it a try yet?

PayPal has a similar service that works the same way. I used it at one lunch spot in NYC when they were offering a discount for using it, but that's it.

Thanks for sharing the experience - logical for them to pilot it in the Bay area. Read something about it earlier last/this month - along with/in addition to Android Pay, which require devices with NFC enabled, etc.

We have AP on our Nexus 5X and Nexus 6 already, not sure if we wanted to load another APP on our devices OTOH, I could put it on the backup Moto E 2015 4G/LTE global dual Sim (it's a mini "Nexus" running stock rooted MM 6.0 with a 32GB mSD card) and use it to pay for purchases airside while traveling (abroad ) - if merchants do accept them & processing verified, etc. - That would be a nice feature - assuming that the latest security patches would take care of other matters. My FIL used to say, cash is king, always is, indeed.