Google has announced the discontinuation of Google Pay, their legacy payment application, shifting primary focus to NFC payments under the same brand. The phase-out will impact American users while the company strengthens its efforts in facilitating NFC transactions.
In a reshuffling move, Google Wallet is set to take charge of application duties demonstrating Google’s payment infrastructure reforms. Unveiling Google Wallet as the latest iteration, Google Pay aims to maintain its position in the digital payment landscape.
Google first introduced NFC payments via Google Wallet in 2011, encouraging mobile-based and in-store payments. By 2012, a cloud-based wallet made it easier for users to link their bank accounts, and debit/credit cards to the application, promoting widespread digitalization and mobile-ready services.
After Apple Pay’s launch in 2014, Google responded a year later with Android Pay, an app incorporating many Apple Pay features, like payment tokens and NFC technology for transactions. Android Pay had unique offerings including, loyalty program integrations.
Google Pay discontinuation: transition to Wallet
By 2016, Google merged Android Pay and Google Wallet into Google Pay, enhancing its competition stance in the digital payments market.
Google Pay replaced Android Pay in 2018, leveraging codebases from Android Pay and Google Wallet. Despite brand name changes, each version was an incremental improvement in functionality, user experience, and security features.
A significant transition occurred with a Google Pay app redesign in 2021, based on Indian app Google Tez. However, the updated app’s limitation of not supporting multi-device simultaneous login narrowed its usability, initiating wide-ranging discussions in user forums. Google is currently working on resolving this issue, showing relentless commitment to improve user-centric features and seamless multi-device access.
Transitioning to the new Google Pay version from the old one developed complexities due to differences in the underlying codebases, affecting automatic updates and overall interoperability. The progressive phasing out of the Google Pay app now paves the way for Google Wallet, directing future enhancements in Google’s payment sector.
