Google Wallet now available in India: Here is what it offers

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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Google on Wednesday (May 8) launched its Wallet app. Unlike its international counterparts, the Indian version of Google Wallet is designed with a primary focus on organising digital documents for various purposes, including travel, movies, event alerts, gift cards, and even car keys.

To enable the experience for Indian users, Google Wallet has partnered with 20 brands such as PVR & INOX, Air India, Indigo, Flipkart, Pine Labs, Kochi Metro, Abhibus and many others.

For corporate users, Google Wallet offers integration with corporate badges, in partnership with system integrators Wavelynx and Alert Enterprise. Google Wallet allows users to store and access their corporate badges directly on their Android devices.

Additionally, users can easily create new passes in Wallet from images containing barcodes or QR codes, such as airline boarding passes, luggage tags, or parking receipts.

Google Wallet also integrates seamlessly with Gmail, automatically populating the Wallet with relevant information, such as movie bookings or train reservations, provided users have smart personalisation settings enabled in Gmail.

The Google Wallet app is now available for download from the Play Store.

Differentiating features from Google Pay

It’s essential to note that Google Wallet serves distinct purposes from the Google Pay app.

While Google Pay focuses on managing finances and facilitating payments, Google Wallet is tailored for non-payment use cases. Using this, consumers can store essentials like boarding passes, loyalty cards, event tickets, public transport passes, gift cards, and more.

“We are delighted to partner with many of India’s top brands to offer a comprehensive solution that helps you securely access and manage your everyday essentials. From boarding passes to loyalty cards, and event tickets to public transport passes – they’re there when you need them,” Ram Papatla, GM & India Engineering Lead, Android at Google, said at the launch.

Papatla assured users that Google Pay will remain the primary payments app and Wallet will complement it.

Competition in India

Originally launched in 2011 in the US as a payment app, Google Wallet was rebranded as a digital wallet app in 2022.

Now, nearly two years later, the app has made its way to India, where it will be competing against Samsung Wallet and Apple Wallet — similar offerings from the tech giants.

In India, Apple Wallet is similar to Google’s with functionality limited to storing boarding passes, movie tickets, coupons, rewards cards, etc. While Papatla said that Google currently has no plans to bring the payments option to the app, previous reports have suggested that Apple could bring Apple Pay to Indian users soon which will allow storing debit and cards and making NFC payments through the app as well.

Samsung Wallet, at present, is the only app that has the most offerings — allowing NFC payments from digital debit/credit cards with Samsung Pay, storing digital IDs with DigiLocker and Co-Win integration, travel tickets, car keys, biometric authentication with Samsung Pass and more. However, it is only available for Samsung Galaxy devices — including smartwatches.

Papatla added that Google has no plans of integrating with DigiLocker at the moment.

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KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow