Google Wallet

A long-missed feature may be making a comeback. As hinted at by Android 14’s first beta, there’s a good chance that Google Wallet could revive support for location-based loyalty cards in the future.

Google Wallet was announced last May at I/O and arrived a few weeks later. There was one “coming soon” exception, but Google Wallet is now rolling out in Japan.

If you recently used Google Wallet on Android, you might have noticed a touch of holiday whimsy on the Pay screen.

As expected, Google has started beta testing digital driver’s license and state ID card support on Android through Wallet, starting with the state of Maryland. 

Yesterday, the Google Wallet Quick Settings tile started showing the full name of a card instead of just the last four digits. This was rather annoying, and Google looks to have reverted this change.

Google’s December Play System Updates ready a beta test for keeping a digital driver’s license in your Android phone’s Wallet app while also preparing for next year’s Pixel Tablet.

Update 2: Google is readying the launch of an expanded “Find My Device” feature for Android, along with expanded support for digital car keys.

As detailed in October, Google has changed the wallet shortcuts on the Pixel 7 and 7 Pro to directly open the app.

Going forward, digital car keys in Android’s Google Wallet will no longer be restricted to one user. Google is adding the ability to share your digital car keys with other people who need access.

The first Pixel Watch app update has widely rolled out at this point, with Google last week sharing a few other community updates, including future transit card support.

Google has begun previewing the latest changes to Android as part of November’s Google Play System updates, including improvements for Wallet and parental controls.

Update: Google is bringing its updated photo picker to nearly every Android device, including ones that are quite outdated.

Google Wallet is seeing one of its first major expansions since its launch as it brings mobile payments to Fitbit Sense 2 and Versa 4 as well as expanding into 12 new countries.

Google is beginning to reveal the improvements coming to Android phones, TVs, watches, and more as part of the October 2022 Google Play system updates, including a fix for using Google Wallet with Face Unlock on the Pixel 7

Google’s new Pixel 7 series brings back support for face unlock, but it comes with a slight compromise as it only works for unlocking the phone, not opening secure apps. But that hiccup is also leading to Google Pay transactions being declined when using the Pixel 7 unexpectedly.

Google Wallet is a pretty simple and straightforward way to manage mobile payments and other cards, but over the past few days, the app has randomly stopped working for some users with a notice claiming that “your device doesn’t meet security requirements,” falsely claiming that devices are rooted.

Google’s acquisition of Fitbit at one point felt like a death knell for the brand’s smartwatches, but nearly two years after that deal was closed, Fitbit is announcing its first smartwatches under Google. The Fitbit Versa 4 and Fitbit Sense 2 are here.