Google launched its digital wallet in India on Wednesday, with local features. This comes almost two years after the app was remade in the U.S. as a digital wallet platform.
According to an exclusive story from TechCrunch last month, Google Wallet will work in India along with the current Google Pay app. Google Pay will still be the company’s payments app in India. In February, Google switched from the Pay app to Wallet in the U.S.
“Google Pay isn’t going away.” At a news conference in New Delhi, Ram Papatla, general manager and India engineering lead for Android at Google, said, “Google Pay is our main payment use case.” “Wallet is designed to help you think about use cases that don’t involve payments.”
Indian Android users will be able to keep and access their boarding passes, gift cards, event tickets, and loyalty passes with Google Wallet. All of this can be added with a QR code, barcode, link shared through Gmail, or by using a button on partner apps that says “Add to Google Wallet.”
The app can also store transit tickets and make passes from any picture with a barcode or QR code on it, like a parking receipt, an airplane boarding pass, or a luggage tag.
Google Wallet will work with 20 names at first, such as PVR Inox, Flipkart, Air India, MakeMyTrip, Pine Labs, and Ixigo. It has also added local bus companies like Abhibus, Kochi Metro, Hyderabad Metro, and VRL Travels. The business has also teamed up with Wavelynx and Alert Enterprise to make it possible for users to store and access their work IDs.
According to the most recent data from Counterpoint that was shared with TechCrunch, Android still has a 93% market share in India’s smartphone market. In 2023, the country sent out 152 million smartphones, and 140 million of them ran Android. The number of people who had a smartphone in 2022 was 66%, but in 2023 it rose to 70%.
Also Read: India Now Has Google Wallet With Unique Features, but Pay Will Still Be Around
All of this gives Google a good reason to bring Wallet to India. But Samsung bank, which is made by the South Korean company and is a digital bank and payments app all in one, would be a competitor. Apple also has the Wallet app for iPhone users in the country, but it doesn’t work with a lot of systems here. You can get virtual boarding passes and transit tickets from sites like Make MyTrip and state metro train operators through the instant message app WhatsApp.
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