Amazon said Thursday it is launching its new app for Amazon One, its contactless palm recognition service that will allow customers to hover their palm over a device in order to buy from more than 500 Whole Foods Market stores, Amazon stores and more than 150 third-party locations.

In addition to registration at one of the company's physical retail stores, customers can now download the Amazon One app from an iOS or Android device and take a picture of their palm while still at home. Once they have registered an online profile and provided a payment method, the user's palm can be used for payment, entry, age verification, and loyalty rewards at hundreds of stores, stadiums, airports, fitness centers, and more.

All photographs of palms taken through the new app are automatically encrypted and transmitted to a secure Amazon One domain in the AWS cloud, the company explains. None of the images can be saved or downloaded to a mobile device.

According to Amazon, Amazon One has been used more than 8 million times.

This app launch follows on the heels of Amazon's expansion on the use of this technology for enterprise identity purposes, which allows companies to authenticate entry by employees.
 
AWS brings the palm-scanning authentication of Amazon One into the enterprise