Re: [w3ctag/design-reviews] Payment link type in HTML (Issue #1015)

stephenmcgruer left a comment (w3ctag/design-reviews#1015)

> The fact that Chrome only supports Google Pay [for Payment Request]

This is not true, from either a technical implementation or practical reality perspective. Chrome (and the Chromium project / Blink browser engine) supports both an open ecosystem of web-based [Payment Handlers](https://www.w3.org/TR/payment-handler/) on all platforms, as well as [native Payment Apps on Android](https://web.dev/articles/android-payment-apps-developers-guide). In production we know of multiple active payment apps using these mechanisms - Google Pay is one, but [PhonePe](https://www.phonepe.com/) and [PayTm](https://paytm.com/) also use Payment Request + Payment Handler. There may also be other apps we don't know about.

This is not to say that Payment Handler has had the level of success that we hoped it would. We would love to see more adoption of it, or even engagement by the industry in what it lacks/needs they have. We've been excited by [recent interest from PayPal](https://github.com/w3c/payment-request/issues/1040), and we're hoping that plays out more. But to be direct, **the number one feedback** we hear from developers is - "is this available across all [major] browsers?". And as long as yes, Safari continues to support only Apple Pay in Payment Request, and Firefox continues to not ship Payment Request/Payment Handler, I think that will be an area that payments struggles with. But that's not a problem unique to payments in the w3c, and it is a problem that we are tackling the same way as we do in other areas - we're going to find partners who are willing to ship only on some browsers and who are willing to iterate with us, we're going to (hopefully!) build compelling web capabilities/APIs that bring benefit to both users and the payments industry. And along the way we're going to invest in specifications, web tests, etc, to do our best to leave a clearer path for other browsers to follow.

On the specific topic of facilitated payment links, I agree that there is more to be done here to bring them towards that same open web ecosystem as Payment Request. That's why Rouslan and I spent time on the [directional thoughts](https://github.com/WICG/paymentlink/pull/16) I linked above, and why we want to get it into the WPWG where it can incubate further. However we do think the initial version as currently described in the explainer still has value and we are intending to move forward with it.

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cc @ianbjacobs, who may wish to comment from the perspective of the WPWG. For clarity, I am very specifically speaking with my Chrome hat on in this thread.

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