Although Google Wallet essentially took the role of Google Pay back in 2022, the former is still in use in a few of nations, including the US. In an effort to streamline its payment apps, the search giant has now said that Pay will be withdrawn domestically on June 4, 2024. According to Google’s blog post, owing to the “unique needs in those countries,” it will only be accessible in Singapore and India after that.
Google plans to deprecate peer-to-peer (P2P) payments, balance management, and “find offers and deals.” It suggests utilizing Search’s new offers destination for the latter. After June 4, 2024, users will still be able to use the Google Pay website to transfer their Google Pay (GPay) amount to a bank account.
With five times as many users across 180 countries, Google Wallet has essentially supplanted GPay, according to the business. This is due to the fact that it is capable of handling more than just payments; in addition to credit and debit cards, it can hold virtual auto keys, state IDs, transit permits, and driver’s licenses.
Over the years, Google’s payment mechanism has been a complete disaster. When it was first introduced in 2011 as Google Wallet. It was a tap-to-pay system at the time, backed by Mastercard and stores like Macy’s, that debuted years before Apple Pay (2014).
In the meanwhile, Google Pay was renamed from Android Pay, which was released in 2015 and merged with Google Wallet in 2018. Furthermore, the business had a Google Wallet card that was essentially a prepaid debit card that could be used at any store that took Mastercard until it was discontinued in 2016. Everything is now once again covered by Google Wallet, barring further change in the company’s policy.
