If you regularly pay with your phone as a bank card, it's worth giving up - Google announces that it is abandoning its popular payment service Google Pay. It will be replaced by another service that performs the same function, Google Wallet. According to Arnold Lukošius, "Tele2Innovation expert, this aims to reduce the number of different apps and make payments easier for users, but not a single popular feature will remain.
The service will no longer be available
"The smartphone has long ceased to be just a means of communication. It has replaced many other technologies, from the camera to the bank card. The latter are much less common now - if you have your bank card on your phone, it's enough to touch the payment machine with it to pay for your purchases. Of course, the developers of these services are constantly looking for ways to improve the user experience, and this is not the first time Google has made such a change," A. Lukošius notes.
According to Google, the widely used Google Pay service is being abandoned in order to simplify payments. Until now, all Android smartphone users had the choice of both Google Pay and Google Wallet services. Although they basically work very similarly, Google Wallet is much more popular, so it was decided to keep only one service.
The company also drew attention to the fact that Google Wallet gives users more options - it is possible to store not only bank cards, but also driver's license, identification documents, plane tickets and other important digital documents.
However, users have already noticed one drawback of the change - Google Wallet does not allow peer-to-peer payments between users, a feature that Google Pay had. "This meant that users could easily transfer money to each other without the usual bank logins and transfers." From now on, this function will no longer exist", says A. Lukošius.
Saying goodbye to the Google Pay platform will be launched in June this year. This change will happen first JAV in the market. Users are advised to transfer all financial transactions to the Google Wallet service now.
Changed his mind more than once
True, Tele2's Innovation expert notes that this is not the first time Google has taken such a decision - it has migrated payment services from one platform to another.
"The last decade has seen a lot of change in payments on the Android phone. Google first introduced Google Wallet, then it was replaced by Android Pay, it was rebranded as Google Pay, and now it's just Google Wallet again. It seems that the company is still looking for the best way to make payments", says A. Lukošius.
The expert reminds that not only Android phone users can pay with a smartphone in physical or electronic stores. iPhones with Apple Pay virtual wallet offer a similar service. Bank cards, plane or concert tickets and other documents can also be added to it.
