The final Windows 10 builds for desktop and smartphone are yet to be released, but more details about the features Windows fans should expect from Microsoft’s major operating system upgrade keep coming in. On top of revealing various new features for the desktop version of the OS last week during the WinHEC event in China, the company also shared some of the secrets behind Windows 10 for handsets. One of them, Nokia Power User reports, will be a new way of handling mobile payments, as Microsoft appears to be interested in competing against Apple Pay, Samsung Pay and other similar products.
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A short demo video, embedded below, reveals that Microsoft will enable a “Tap to Pay” functionality in Windows 10. In addition to NFC support, the company will also include Host Card Emulation support in Windows 10 in order to implement mobile payments on mobile devices without requiring a Secure Element present on a phone or SIM card.
Thus, Microsoft will not need any support from carriers to enable wireless payments on Windows 10 devices, and the company will work with major credit card companies including Visa, MasterCard and American Express to enable mobile payments on mobile devices.
It’s not clear at this time whether Microsoft will also add fingerprint protection to its wireless payments product, thus potentially limiting the feature only to certain Windows 10 smartphones that will have built-in fingerprint sensors, but the company has already announced that it’ll offer Windows 10 users across devices a new way of logging in, which uses biometric sensors, including fingerprint, iris and face sensors.
A video showing the Tap to Pay feature, and a slide from a Microsoft presentation that confirms the Host Card Emulation support in Windows 10, follow below.
