Android Pay was announced at Google I/O around 3 months ago, and Google has since said we can expect the platform to launch here in the US sometime "later this year." It appears "later" could now be "like, next week," if this notice to employees at a McDonald's location is to be believed.

The August 21st launch for Samsung Pay is wrong, but it's the launch date for the devices (Note and S6 Edge+) - which seems like an honest mistake. Samsung Pay will actually launch next month. But August 26th for Android Pay is A.) awfully close, and B.) on a Wednesday. And you guys know how Google is about new/updated apps on Wednesdays, at least if you regularly visit Android Police for APK downloads.

We know retailers are ramping up for Android Pay - many already have Android Pay placards and stickers on their credit card terminals, and I regularly see them here in Los Angeles at stores like Trader Joe's and CVS. We've also had numerous readers tip us about similar signs and stickers in the past few weeks, so they're clearly becoming more and more common.

But should we take stock in this August 26th date? On the one hand, McDonald's is going to be a huge partner for Android Pay here in America if only because of their size. There's no doubt Google would inform them ahead of time of Pay's approximate launch window, if only to prepare employees. Although, it's equally possible this date relies on old information and that the launch has since changed, we just don't know. It does seem reasonably likely, if nothing else, that August 26th at some point was and possibly still is a good bet for Android Pay's approximate public launch. We'll just have to wait until Wednesday to see if this one holds up.

You can also help us out here, especially if you're a McDonald's employee: have you seen this notice and date in your store?

UPDATE: 2015/08/22 7:58pm PDT BY

yVALN09

We've got at least one source showing that McDonald's is distributing this date to multiple stores. A memo posted on the Android subreddit looks substantially more official and contains the same August 26th launch date as our image above.

yVALN09

Thanks: Ben

Thanks: Phasms