Google Pay adds peer-to-peer payments and more

Google announced a significant expansion of its Google Pay service on Wednesday, adding peer-to-peer payments to its contactless payment system as well as a partnership with banks to incorporate banking and checking services next year.

Why it matters: Contactless payments can be a gateway to other financial services, as Apple has shown by expanding from Apple Pay to Apple Card.

Details: Google unveiled a bunch of new features for Pay, including:

• Splitting a bill and other peer-to-peer transactions.
• The ability to track spending and do other personal finance tasks, including searching for transactions by keywords such as "pizza" or "last month."
• A new kind of mobile-first bank account, called Plex, in partnership with banks, coming in 2021.

Between the lines: Bankrate industry analyst Ted Rossman called the move "an ambitious play for a wide spectrum of consumers' financial needs."

• "Because the Google Pay app is available for Android and iOS phones, this is going to heat up the competition between Google and Apple," Rossman said in a statement.

Yes, but: Some critics warned that the move could further entrench Big Tech's market power and influence.

• "It is a nightmarish example of the ways monopolies like Google can bully their way into new industries and it will open the door to all kinds of abuse," said Graham Steele, Senior Fellow at the American Economic Liberties Project.