Google Inc. is supposedly working on a new service for its Gmail email platform that will allow users to receive their bills in digital format directly to their inbox and also pay those bills without leaving Gmail. The new service, dubbed “Pony Express”, will integrate with both Gmail and Google’s new Inbox app and is apparently scheduled to go-live during the fourth quarter of 2015.

A document obtained by Re/code provides insight into how users would sign up for the service and also details how it may work.

To sign up for Pony Express, a Gmail user will have to supply their name, address, partial or full Social Security number –and potentially their full credit card number and/or telephone service account number – to a third-party company charged with vetting users’ identities.

The document indicates that Google is partnering and working with the third-party vendors contracted to print and mail out bills on behalf of service providers. There appears to be no involvement from the actual service providers at this stage.

Once authenticated, the user will start receiving digital copies of bills such as their phone bill, utilities or insurance bill directly to their Gmail or Inbox app. While digital billing via email is nothing new, it appears that Pony Express offers up a few functions that take it a step further. The service collates all bills in a special “Pony Express” folder and users can manually or automatically share bills with other parties (provided they also use Gmail) –useful for roommates who split the utility or phone bill.

Then there is the most notable feature: Payments. Users can pay bills electronic via debit card or a linked bank account from directly within Pony Express.

Other ‘nice to have’ features include the ability to pull up customer service contact information for service providers and a feature that lets a user take a photo of a bill received via traditional mail and archive it in Pony Express.

It’s not clear if, or how, Google intends to monetize this service, but with an estimated user base of over 500 million, the potential for the company to collect additional information over and above users’ search and location history must be tempting.

photo credit: google snail mail via photopin (license)