Google Play now lets you ask other people to buy apps for you

Google I/O has been chock-full of announcements, ranging from Android Auto to Wear OS and everything in between. While a majority of the reveals have been AI-related, there has been plenty of news that’s not related to AI. One such announcement shares that a new payment method is coming to the Google Play Store.

Google’s marketplace offers a variety of ways to pay for an app or an in-app item, whether it’s through PayPal, credit card, a code redemption, or some other method. Last year, it introduced a new way to pay that lets you hand over the bill to someone else. At the time of rollout, this payment method was only available in India. But now, it’s expanding to more markets.

The payment method I’m talking about here is called “Ask someone else to pay.” This feature appears as a button during checkout. If you tap on the button, it will generate a payment link you can send to someone outside of your Google family group. The user is then warned that whoever’s paying has to know their full email address, they can also see the item that’s being purchased, and that the payer has 24 hours before the payment link expires.

Google has announced that Ask someone else to pay is now rolling out to four additional countries. These regions include the US, Japan, Mexico, and Indonesia.

Such a Play Store feature could come in handy if you want to give a friend a gift. However, it could also quickly become annoying, as it could easily be used to beg someone to pay for something.