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Jason Cipriani/CNET
Mobile payments have yet to gain mass adoption across major retailers, but that doesn’t stop Starbucks from trying to lead the way with its mobile app. As such, I fully expected to see an Android Wear compatible update made to its app shortly after Google I/O when it was announced Google’s smartwatches would begin shipping soon.
Disappointingly, the Android Wear launch came and went without an update to the Android Starbucks app, forcing users to think outside the box. As pointed out in this post on Greenbot, creating your own barcode and storing it in “Keep as a location-based reminder” works, but could be improved upon.
Then this morning I found a post on Smarter Watching highlighting and Android Wear app called WearBucks.
Once you install the free app, you can log in to your Starbucks account and add your Starbucks card number to the app. Doing so will allow you to both view your current balance, and display a barcode for payment.
Launching the app is just a voice command of “Start Pay with Starbucks” away. The app needs some work, as you can see in the photo above, the extra zero’s trailing the account balance are unnecessary. Also, you currently have to manually enter your Starbucks card number for the app to create the barcode. Admittedly, both issues are minor grievances.
Even with that said, WearBucks is as good as it’s going to get until Starbucks decides to integrate wearables into its mobile payment services.
Download WearBucks from the Play Store.
