Our most popular payment interface, UPI is set to launch Tap-to-Pay feature by 31 January this year. Find out how the NFC enabled feature means for its users.

New Delhi: The Unified Payments Interface (UPI), India’s most used digital payment platform, is to launch contactless transactions with its highly anticipated tap-to-pay feature by 31 January 2024. This feature will work using Near Field Communication technology and will support payment on NFC-enabled smartphones and NFC-enabled terminals. Here are the details on the UPI update, benefits and more.

All New Mode of Payment

UPI tap-to-pay uses NFC technology to make contactless payments. Users can securely store their UPI-linked bank accounts on their smartphones (or wearables). Upon approaching an NFC-enabled terminal, a simple tap would trigger the initiation of the transaction, bypassing the traditional enter PIN method used so far.

Benefits Of The Tap-to-Pay Feature

• Conveniently Fast: Instant payments eliminates long queues and waiting time, giving a smoother payment experience for both users and merchants.
• Secure Transaction: Transactions are secured with two-factor authentication through the user’s UPI PIN, ensuring a safe and reliable payment experience.
• Contactless Hygiene: The NFC enabled feature would minimise the contact when payment transmission and and promote .
• Including Smartwatches: The Tap-to-Pay feature would support smartwatches enabling even quicker payments, even without your smartphone

Prerequisites Before Use

To avail this feature, users are required to have devices such as smartphone or wearable which is equipped with NFC technology and is  linked to their UPI account. Additionally, updating their existing UPI app to activate the tap-to-pay functionality might be necessary. Banks and merchants are actively preparing for this technological shift by equipping their POS terminals with NFC readers.

Amongst its other popular features such as AutoPay, widely used for subscription based payments, UPI is also planned to be enabled as an international payments option across India, opening seamless transaction with our foreign counterparts. UPI is also set to implement a policy against frauds, and aims to deactivate accounts which have been inactive for over a year. Users with more than one UPI account are advised to regularly use all their accounts to avoid deactivation.