Google Wallet is the default payment, ID, and transit card app on most Android phones, replacing Google Pay. The term “Google Pay” still exists for contactless NFC payments in stores, but you can use the Google Wallet app for these transactions.
Now that the Google Pay app is shutting down later this year, you might be wondering which Pay features will be moved to Wallet. You may also have heard that Google Wallet supports features such as driver’s licenses, tickets, and medical information, and you may be wondering how to access these features.
Our in-depth guide to Google Wallet details its history, key feature list, latest news and updates, and everything else you need to know!
Google Wallet, summary
The original Google Wallet launched as a Nexus phone in 2011 and was designed for contactless credit card payments at select locations. The initiative ultimately failed due to a lack of NFC-enabled phones, insufficient retail partnerships, and little consumer interest.
Android Pay replaced Wallet in 2015 as a payment system with more business support and infrastructure, while Wallet was reduced to a peer-to-peer payment system.
By 2018, both services had been merged under the Google Pay brand, a single app for both tap-to-pay and sending money to friends, which is no longer the case with Google Wallet. Over time, Google Pay added boarding passes, event confirmations, transportation balances, and other tools that weren’t strictly “payments.”
Google’s penchant for renaming services to boost marketing came to fruition in July 2022, when it renamed its payments service once again to Google Wallet. Google Pay continues as a peer-to-peer payments app, removing wallet-like functionality, but will be shut down on June 4, 2024.
Google Wallet will continue to support Google Pay payments in stores globally.it accustomed to However, P2P payments are enabled like the original Pay app, and your current Google Pay balance can only be transferred through the website after the Pay mobile app is closed.
Google Wallet supports a variety of banks and credit cards in over 80 countries. It also supports a variety of other passes, IDs, and storage information, which we’ll detail in the next section.
Generally speaking, Google Wallet pulls information from other Google apps on your Android phone. For example, if you receive an email on Gmail that your flight is delayed, it will notify you and change the stored boarding pass information.
What can you store in Google Wallet?
First, you can make a deposit Credit and debit card In Google Wallet. Most banks and cards are compatible, and Google has added dozens of new banks in 2024 to fill out the list before Google Pay shuts down. You can make sure your bank is included by checking the list of supported contactless payments sorted by country.
As a side note, we have a guide on how to lock your Google Wallet cards if your phone is stolen so thieves can’t use those stored cards to tap and pay.
You can add your loyalty or membership card, then tap your phone or watch to apply discounts or balances, or even pay for items directly.Click to see if your membership card qualifies Add to Wallet > Membership Card and enter the program name.
Plus, you can keep your boarding pass and event tickets in Google Wallet, so getting into a plane or stadium is as easy as pulling them up and tapping your phone. In March 2024, Google updated the Wallet, and the Gmail confirmation email will automatically export the pass to the Wallet, saving you the trouble.
Google Wallet also hosts Traffic card and parking permit, but again, there is no guarantee without checking that your local public transportation or parking system will support Google Wallet. Currently, San Francisco, Washington, D.C., and Toronto are the only cities that support Google Wallet transit cards or payments.
you can add COVID-19 vaccine passport Or other medical information can also be sent to Google Wallet.
Other Google Wallet features include digital car key, Company office passand hotel key. Digital car keys require a relatively new phone running Android 12 or higher, and not all cars support them. As for Enterprise Badges, only 10 countries currently support Enterprise Pass, and your employer must join the program.
However, Google’s biggest challenge will be getting digital driving license or Student card. Some U.S. states have begun to support digital IDs, but it is currently extremely limited.
Can I store my driver’s license in Google Wallet?
During Google I/O 2022, Vice President of Product Management Sameer Samat announced on stage, “We are working with U.S. states and governments around the world to bring digital IDs into wallets later this year, from driver’s licenses to start.”
As it turns out, that announcement was a bit optimistic: Plan ID did launch in Maryland in late 2022, but Google didn’t add digital ID support for Arizona, Colorado, and Georgia residents until October 2023.
Dong Min Kim, Google Wallet’s director of product management, promised in January that “digital IDs will be our cornerstone next year” and that more state IDs will be added to the wallet in the coming months. But we haven’t heard anything since, and there are regulatory hurdles to making this happen.
To add your driver’s license to Google Wallet, you need an Android phone (version 8 or higher) with Bluetooth and nearby devices active, and a screen lock.
Once all these prerequisites are met, you just need to open the wallet app and click on Add to wallet > ID card. You must then take photos of the front and back of your ID and record a short video of yourself for verification. At that point, you should be able to use your ID in place of a physical card at participating airports.
We have a guide for adding a student ID to Google Wallet, but again it depends on whether your school supports the feature.
Google Wallet: Bank
We can’t include a complete list of Google Wallet banks here, so we’ll link you to this list Google support page There is a drop-down menu linking to a list of banks for each country.
For the US alone, the list of “other participating banks” appears to be Thousands of options. Once you select your bank in Google Wallet, you’ll most likely need to log into the bank’s website or enter a PIN or authorization code.
You can also choose Paypal as a payment method in Google Wallet, but only in the United States and Germany.
Which countries support Google Wallet?
Currently, Google Wallet has replaced Google Pay in the following 80 countries:
- Albania
- American Samoa
- Argentina
- Armenia
- Australia
- Austria
- Azerbaijan
- Belgium
- Bermuda
- Bosnia and Herzegovina
- Brazil
- Bulgaria
- Canada
- Cayman Islands
- Chile
- Colombia
- costa rica
- Croatia
- Cyprus
- Czech Republic
- Denmark
- Dominican Republic
- Ecuador
- Estonia
- faroe islands
- Finland
- France
- Georgia
- Germany
- Greece
- Greenland
- Guam
- guernsey
- Hongkong
- Hungary
- Iceland
- Ireland
- Isle of Man
- Israel
- Italy
- Japan
- Kazakhstan
- Kyrgyzstan
- Kuwait
- Latvia
- Liechtenstein
- Lithuania
- Luxembourg
- Malaysia
- malta
- Mexico
- moldova
- Monaco
- Montenegro
- Morocco
- Netherlands
- New Zealand
- North Macedonia
- Northern Mariana Islands
- Norway
- Peru
- Poland
- Portugal
- Puerto Rico
- Qatar
- Romania
- san marino
- Serbia
- Singapore
- Slovakia
- slovenia
- South Africa
- Spain
- Sweden
- Switzerland
- Taiwan
- Thailand
- Ukraine
- United Arab Emirates
- U.K.
- USA
- United States Virgin Islands
- Vietnam
Google Wallet vs. competing payment apps
Android users (especially Samsung phone users) have two main options for payment apps: Google Wallet or Samsung Wallet. The latter launched around the same time as Google Wallet, merging Samsung Pay and Samsung Pass into one service. Sound familiar?
Like Google Wallet, Samsung Wallet collects your digital payment cards, boarding passes, vaccination cards, and digital car keys, with the ultimate goal of adding IDs and licenses.
unlike Google Wallet and Samsung Wallet store passwords and are remnants of the Samsung Pass feature. Additionally, anyone investing in cryptocurrencies can “monitor their digital asset portfolio by checking the value of their cryptocurrencies on various exchanges” within the wallet.
Samsung Wallet is available now, but is only available on Samsung phones through the Galaxy Store, while Google Wallet is available on all Android phones through the Play Store and is limited to 21 countries, far below Google’s list.
In addition to the Android phone ecosystem, we’ve also provided a general guide on how the five major payment systems (Google Pay, Samsung Pay, Apple Pay, Meta Pay, and Amazon Pay) compare to each other.
In short, Google and Apple have the most powerful capabilities and broad reach when it comes to mobile and web payments. Amazon Pay is more limited but requires minimal setup if you have a Prime account, while Meta Pay is most useful for frequent users of Facebook Marketplace.
What’s new in Google Wallet?
The biggest recent change to Google Wallet is the photo feature, which lets you take a photo of your physical pass and have that data automatically transcribed into your wallet, rather than having you enter it yourself.
Google Wallet added support for Apple Wallet files in early 2024, but the rollout is still in progress. People have noticed some glitches as the “.pkpass” file expects you to be using an iPhone, but these should be fixed over time.
Another controversy arose when Google Wallet started requiring you to verify your identity before making contactless payments in some countries. While some countries already require this, others allow you to make payments indefinitely, as long as the payment amount doesn’t exceed a certain threshold.
Google later created “verification settings” for Wallet, allowing you to decide in advance whether authentication is required before certain actions, such as using Wallet as a transit pass.
In late 2023, a vulnerability in Google Wallet exposed credit card information through a standard NFC card reader. This glitch was eventually fixed.
Which smartwatches support Google Wallet?
The list of smartwatches that support Google Pay is quite long. Basically, any Wear OS watch will support this feature since it’s Google’s operating system. Now that Google and Samsung have partnered on Wear OS 3, even the latest Galaxy Watch will let you choose between Google Pay and Samsung Pay.
As for the latest devices to add Google Wallet, both the Fitbit Sense 2 and Versa 4 support Wallet, thanks to Google’s acquisition of Fitbit. Of course, Google’s own Pixel Watch will be the first to receive any new Wallet features and updates.
The best watches for Google apps
Pixel Watch 2 is one of the favorite watches among Android phone users. Its attractive soft-sided design and fast user interface make it stand out from other smartwatches, and you get all the latest Wear OS tech (like Google Wallet) before other brands.