PayPal makes app available for Pebble Smartwatch

PayPal has made its mobile payments app available for the Pebble Smartwatch in a bid to rival Apple Pay.

Pebble users – or ‘Pebblers’ – are able to pay with an auto-generated payments code or check-in to participating stores with the PayPal app. With the latter payment method, the app will automatically communicate with the retailer’s point of sale during the check-out process.

The app will also send notifications to Pebble wearers. Throughout this entire process, phones will stay safely out of the way in bag or pocket – no interference required.

With the addition of the PayPal app for Pebble, the PayPal app is now available across all available wearable platforms, including the latest Android Wear devices as well as Samsung’s Gear 2, Gear S and Gear Fit.

Clearly an opportunity to rival Apple Pay, PayPal is attempting to outmanoeuvre the tech giant before a similar service goes live with the release of the Apple Watch.

Despite very early rumours of a partnership between PayPal and Apple earlier this year, the talks failed when PayPal made a deal with Samsung to allow PayPal payments with the Galaxy S5’s fingerprint sensor. From then on, the payments giant found itself excluded from any integration with Apple.

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