Paytm vs FreeCharge vs MobiKwik vs Google Tez vs others: Here's a look at the existing digital wallets ecosystem

As WhatsApp gets ready with its payment service in India, it will be one more among the many digital payments services available at our disposal. Since the demonetisation, the push for digital wallets has been immense. It has reached a point where slowly, but surely, a lot of online as well as offline establishments are accepting payment via digital wallet apps.[caption id="attachment_4347023" align="alignleft" width="380"]

Digital Wallets. Image: tech2[/caption]WhatsApp payments has been speculated for quite a while now. According to latest reports, WhatsApp is testing an in-chat UPI payment option for the app. Some users have been reporting that the feature has been activated on Android devices, but on doing a quick check with tech2 team-mates and a lot of our friends, we haven't seen the service activated on any device, this includes devices running WhatsApp beta. Clearly, the feature is rolling out in batches.According to a GizmoTimes report, the option is available only to beta users as of now. To use it, the user has to open the attachment option, where a payment option appears alongside other options like Documents, Gallery, Audio, Location and Contact. Alternatively, you can go to the Settings menu and you will see a new Payments tab.On selecting the option, the user is asked if they want to receive or pay using UPI. It must be noted that the person must have a UPI account as well.Secondly, this option is also showing a host of bank options for the user for linking to their UPI accounts.Unlike the existing digital payment options, WhatsApp payments is getting a lot of attention for the simple fact that it has over 200 million active users. WhatsApp is quite the popular messaging app. And thanks to the popularity, India was among the first few countries which also saw the release of WhatsApp Business.Digital Wallets comparedInfogramBut as we said earlier, WhatsApp Payments is only visible for beta users of WhatsApp. If you are someone who's confused about this whole online payments revolution, here's a quick rundown of the features and capabilities of some of the more popular digital wallets around.Do let us know if we have missed out on any major feature set which you would like to compare across digital wallets.