Announced at the company’s 2022 I/O event, Google Wallet, the replacement for Goole’s popular Google Pay app, is finally starting to arrive. Company spokesperson Chaiti Sen notes that the update has begun rolling out to Android users in 39 countries and will be available to all users over the next few days.
The new Google Wallet (this isn’t the first Google Wallet the company has released) was pitched as an upgrade to Google Pay, letting users do a lot more than just send or receive money.
The wallet has additional features, including storing digital IDs, vaccination status, tickets, keys and more, in addition to your usual payment options like debit and credit cards.
The company has partnered with transit agencies, retailers, ticket providers, health agencies and airlines to create digital versions for their cards and tickets to be saved and used straight from the resurrected wallet.
Out of the 39 countries to get the new wallet app, the majority are expected to get it as an update to Google Pay, completely replacing the app with 9to5Google reporting that the app is currently rolling out as an update to Google Pay itself.
Users in the US and Singapore will be able to use both apps, Wallet and Pay, simultaneously, and users in India will continue to get Google Pay in its current form in the country.
Google has been trying to get its wallet apps right for quite some time now. Before being combined with Android Pay to form Google Pay in 2018,
Google wallet went through several iterations to include payment features to keep up with the times, even releasing a physical Google Wallet debit card at one point. The app has come a long way from being a simple NFC payment app back in 2011, but hopefully is now seeing its final form with Android 13.
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