Although Google Wallet essentially took the role of Google Pay back in 2022, the former is still in use in a number of nations, including the US. In an effort to streamline its payment options, the search engine behemoth has now said that the standalone Pay app would be shut down 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 using 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) balance 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 store virtual auto keys, state IDs, transport passes, and driver’s licenses. Google Wallet will continue to offer Google Pay as a service.
Over the years, Google’s payment mechanism has been a complete mess. 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 meantime, Google Pay was rebranded 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 another change in the company’s policy.
Correction, 10:30 AM ET February 23, 2024: This item has been modified to make it clear that the service itself is not being discontinued in the US—only the stand-alone Google Pay app is. It will continue to be accessible via Google Wallet in the future.
