Google’s mobile payments and pass service appears to be returning to the Google Wallet branded umbrella as Google looks to streamline its multiple branded offers. Kyle Bradshaw writes further in 9to5Google:
On Android, things have been a bit messy in regards to contactless payments, mostly due to what feels like an ever-changing strategy on Google’s part. For most of the world, “Google Pay” is and has been run through a standalone app that solely manages your contactless payments alongside other supported tickets and passes.
Meanwhile, in select countries like the US, Singapore, and India, there’s an entirely different app, “GPay,” which hosts a number of social features, deals, and peer-to-peer payments, as well as once being home to Google’s cancelled ambitions for banking. This app has less of an emphasis on contactless payments, with the work of managing your cards and passes being handled by Google Play Services rather than GPay.
The wallet would serve as a digital storage location for contactless payment cards, loyalty cards, passes, etc. Bradshaw reports that payments would still likely be processed through Google Pay as a separate service.
The top of Google’s Wallet app has a dedicated place to showcase your default Google Pay contactless payment card. The phrasing here (and in the intro graphic) is interesting as it suggests that the act of payment still happens “with Google Pay” though you’re adding the card to “Wallet.” The implication being that the two are distinct and that both brands may be sticking around.
These moves highlight the development of growing wallets beyond payments and into adjacent sectors with the branding aligned to those goals.
Overview by Jordan Hirschfield, Director of Research at Mercator Advisory Group
