Google Pay will expand SoundPod amid the crisis over Paytm Payments Bank

The countrywide expansion of SoundPod for merchants has been announced by the fintech company Google Pay. The majority of retailers will carry SoundPod in the upcoming months.

Last year, the company launched SoundPods on a small pilot programme in India. The Google Pay (GPay) SoundPod is a speaker device, just like Paytm's Soundbox. Additionally, an audio notification service of the transaction is offered in this instance, informing the merchant of the amount paid via the QR code.

Google Pay vice president of product Ambrish Lange said in a blog post “Last year, we introduced our SoundPod product in a limited pilot. It's an audio device that helps merchants track QR code payments with audio alerts when a payment is received. Merchants have shared positive feedback regarding this. Soundbox reduces checkout time. We are pleased to announce that SoundPods will be available to small merchants across India in the coming months.”

He further adds that this is in addition to the list of consumer and merchant offerings we announced in October 2023 to expand the availability of responsible credit in India.

After PhonePe, GPay is the second largest UPI app in the country. It facilitated 444.28 crore transactions worth Rs 6,35,945.58 crore in January 2024.

However, PPBL lagged behind GPay in terms of both volume and value of transactions in January 2024.

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) ordered Paytm Payments Bank Limited (PPBL) to stop accepting any money for transactions after March 15.

RBI has clarified in the list of FAQs that Paytm QR Code, Paytm Soundbox or Paytm POS terminals will continue to function after March 15 only if they are linked to banks other than PPBL.

Paytm said that merchant payment subscriptions has reached 1.06 crore in the December 2023 quarter. This is an increase of Rs 49 lakh on a year-on-year basis.

Paytm is working to fix an issue with merchant transactions with virtual payment address settings.