Drive checkout from your own button and method selector while the SDK handles the
post-tap work — the Google Pay sheet, the 3DS / PayPal / redirect Custom Tab, and polling.
Use this when you want full control of styling, placement, and state but don’t want to
reimplement payment orchestration. The handle that makes this possible is
PayrailsPaymentLauncher.
Prerequisites
- An active Payrails session (see Quick Start)
- The
Session reference returned by Payrails.createSession(...)
- The
com.payrails.android:checkout dependency (see Quick Start)
- For the encrypted-card path: a card payload already encrypted by your client-side
encryption library (the SDK exposes no encryption API — see
Why no encryption API)
Steps
1. Create the launcher early
The launcher registers a Google Pay Activity Result contract, so it must be created before
the host reaches the STARTED state. In Compose, call the factory during composition:
From a View / Activity, create it in onCreate:
This is your UI — style it however you like. Track the selected method in your own state:
3. Trigger the payment
Call the matching authorize(...) overload from your button. The SDK opens whatever UI the method
needs:
4. Handle the result
Each authorize(...) resolves to exactly one ActionResult,
delivered to the callback you supplied in step 1:
Troubleshooting
Problem: The launcher throws when created
Solution: Payrails.createPaymentLauncher(...) must be called from Activity.onCreate.
Registering the Google Pay Activity Result contract after the activity is STARTED is not
allowed by the Android Activity Result API.
Problem: A card that needs 3DS does not complete
Solution: 3DS is handled automatically by the launcher (it owns the Custom Tab) — you do
not branch on it. The terminal ActionResult arrives after the challenge resolves. There is no
separate “headless” card call to choose; launcher.authorize(encryptedCardData = …) covers
both frictionless and 3DS.
Problem: ActionResult.Failed with code == UNKNOWN_ERROR (rawError unsupportedPayment)
Solution: The selected method is not configured on the session. Confirm availability with
session.getPaymentMethodConfig()
before calling authorize(...).
Problem: Google Pay never opens
Solution: Check device capability with session.isGooglePayAvailable(context) and confirm
Google Pay is configured on the session.
See also
PayrailsPaymentLauncher API Reference — every method and factory
Last modified on September 30, 2026