Google announced on Wednesday that it is rolling out its Wallet app for Android smartphone users in the world’s most populous country. Google Wallet can store tickets, movie tickets, rewards cards, and digital car keys, becoming a hub for everyday things that matter to users. It is essentially an app to store digital information.
“We’ve focused on just making sure the journey from paper to digital is seamless,” said Ram Papatla, GM & India Engineering Lead, Android at Google, addressing the media during an event in New Delhi. Google has on-boarded 20 partners including PVR Inox, MakeMyTrip, Air India, Shoppers Stop, and BMW to begin with. It will continue to add more partners in the future.
However, in India, Google Wallet will be used for non-payment uses. That means Google Pay, a digital wallet and payment platform from Google, will coexist alongside the Wallet app in India. “Google Pay is not going anywhere,” Papatla said. “Google Pay is our primary payment use case and it solves all payment needs in India. The wallet is specifically tailored for non-payment use cases.”
If you’re an Android user, you should see the brand-new Google Wallet app available for download right now. Google has no plans to launch the Wallet app on the iPhone.
Google Wallet has been around for over a decade and has gone through several changes over the years. Google originally launched Google Wallet back in 2011 as its initial mobile payment service app, allowing Android users to tap their supported phones against readers at select shops to make payments. It only worked on the Nexus phone, however.
In 2015, Google Wallet was succeeded by Android Pay as a replacement for Google Wallet. In 2018, Google announced a merger between Google Wallet and Android Pay, creating Google Pay. This service brought features from both services: contactless payments in-store and peer-to-peer payments online in a single app.
Papatla made it clear that the aim behind the Wallet app is to solve the pain points users face every day, like accessing boarding passes and having them available on their smartphones. Google says that both boarding passes and movie tickets can be surfaced automatically in Google Wallet when a user purchases a ticket and receives a confirmation email via Gmail.
Pixel devices sold in India will come preloaded with the Google Wallet app, the company said. Users will also be able to add Google Wallet as a lock screen shortcut, allowing for quick and easy access.
Google considers India an important market when it comes to search, payments, and apps. In fact, over 97% of all smartphones in India are powered by Google’s Android mobile operating system.
Google has no plans to monetize the Wallet app in India, at least for now.
The article originally appeared on Indian Express.
