A little over a year ago, Google introduced a heavily revised and thus completely new app for Google Pay. Hardly a year has passed since Google publicly confirmed that the project failed miserably. In the meantime, the defeat of this idea has already become apparent. More and more employees left, and the idea of own accounts was never finalized.
The then-new Google Pay app had a lot to offer. It left its previously limited test phase in March 2021 and yet never arrived in Germany. Hopefully, that will be different with the new beginning. Google Pay will soon be launched again as a Google Wallet.
This was the range of functions of the new Google Pay:
- Cashback features, loyalty programs, etc.
- Banking functions (Plex) include spending statistics, savings programs, etc.
- Send and receive money including the chat function
- Share invoices with other users
- Import invoices from Gmail and Google Photos
- Integrate offers from companies (loyalty cards, etc.)
- Integration and access to delivery services (from restaurants, etc.)
- Extensive integration of gas stations including price tables, bonuses, etc.
- Integration of public transport tickets
Google Wallet goes beyond money
Of course, Google Pay is not a good name if you want to offer more functions apart from payment methods. So the step back to Google Wallet is very understandable. In the future, the wallet should also be a place for digital car keys, vaccination cards and other things of everyday life.
In a perfect world, Google Wallet could store all of these in the future:
- Payment cards
- Boarding Passes/Transit Passes
- loyalty cards
- event tickets
- car key
- student ID cards
- vaccination cards
- Mobile driver’s licenses (later this year)
- Hotel key (coming soon)
- Office Badge (coming soon)
Google Wallet is coming. The only question is to what extent to Germany. You can’t say that so soon after the announcement of the conversion. By the way, Google Pay will not disappear completely, the brand should remain as G Pay for contactless payments and for payment transactions on the Internet.