One of the biggest announcements that Google made at I/O 2022 is related to its payment systems. The new feature that Google announced is that it will let you mask your physical credit card with a virtual credit card whenever you are shopping online with Google Chrome.
While you are making your payment in Google Chrome and come across the field where you have to add your 16-digit credit or debit card number, Google will issue a prompt asking you if you want to use a virtual number instead. It is similar in concept to how in-store contactless payments also do not get to see the actual credit card number, however, a different system is being implemented here.
Google Chrome is Making Credit Card Payments a Lot More Secure
Google has decided to work with credit card networks directly and this will result in the virtual numbers being the domain of banks. As such, this implementation will be different between partners. This means that you will get an individual virtual card on every site if you are a Capital One member. Visa and Amex will use a single card for all sites but a different CVV will be used every time. However, the CVV digits will be filled in dynamically without any need for manual entry.
From pay.google.com, you can enroll eligible cards, access created virtual cards, as well as see recent virtual card transactions. The extra layer of security will be first built into Google Chrome Autofill on desktop, with Android and iOS getting the support at later date. Once you have created a virtual card, it will appear in the Autofill dropdown.
The feature is currently rolling out this Summer to the U.S. for Visa, American Express, and all Capital One cards. Master Card support will be coming later this year and an internal launch for this feature is planned.
