Getting people to use Android Pay means merchants, developers, banks must work together.
Today at Alphabet's annual developer's conference, the company announced a host of new tools for developers working with Android Pay—including support for Android Instant Apps, a new feature called PaymentRequest, and improvements to the Save To Android Pay API.

In a call with Ars on Tuesday, Senior Director of Product Management for Android Pay Pali Bhat said that the Android Pay team has been working to increase user signups and encourage continued use of the platform, something that all mobile payment platforms have struggled with in the last five years. “We have to deliver more utility and value," Bhat said.

The new Android Pay features announced today are a means to that end. For instance, Instant Apps—Android's new name for creating an app-like experience without having to download an app—will come with support for an Android Pay checkout feature. If users tap an Instant App URL, the app will run without installing or taking up valuable space on the user's phone. With an Android Pay button, an Instant App from a parking garage could speed along the checkout process, for example.

One of the more interesting new features for developers wanting to use Android Pay is going to be the PaymentRequest API, which will allow Android Pay to fill out Web payment forms through a browser. The tool will initially be developed for Chrome and then be expanded to other browsers. With PaymentRequest enabled, a customer can use it to fill in payment details online and then confirm the purchase with a fingerprint on their phone.

In addition, improvements to the Save to Android Pay API will let retailers send out a link (in a promotional e-mail, for instance) allowing customers to save loyalty and gift cards to the payments platform with a single click. Simplified sign-up will also let users sign up for rewards cards with an in-store tap of their phone or through a link provided in an Android Pay transaction notification.

Finally, Android Pay will be launching ATM support today, something Apple Pay announced in December. As part of Android's continued work to build relationships with banks, it also said it would be partnering with Bank of America to offer Android Pay sign-up prompts from within the Bank of America app, giving customers a streamlined Android Pay setup process for their Bank of America debit and credit cards.