It has been a little over a year since Google Wallet was launched, and ever since that, the company has been adding a slew of features and quality-of-life improvements to make the app even better, and today, the company has announced a few new features that essentially supercharge the app and make the experience even better for everyone.
Google Wallet is finally the app you want to use as it expands to over 60 markets, with more markets coming soon
Google has introduced a few new updates to Google Wallet, with each update focusing on providing more facilities to the user. Everything from the ability to save a pass to the Wallet through an image to the feature that would essentially let you save health insurance cards and other passes on the Wallet, as well as an ID saving feature, and more.
So, what's new with the Google Wallet update? Well, soon, the app will let you save passes from an image. As long as you have a pass with a QR or barcode on it, you can store the pass on your phone so you never have to carry it. This works for QR tickets, parking passes, as well as e-commerce return QR codes, and basically is another way of making sure that your wallet is a lot lighter.
Moving further, Google is also adding the ability to add health insurance and other private passes in Google Wallet. To make this happen, Google and Humana are working together to develop a digital version of their health insurance card that can be saved in the app. Through this, all Humana members will have a simple way of accessing their insurance information without issues coming their way. For people who are in the U.K., there will be an ability to save their National Insurance Number to the Wallet app using the HMRC app.
Google understands how these passes are private, and therefore, they will be showing a "private pass" label to give you a better understanding when it comes to identifying. To make things even more secure, Google will ask you to verify the user if they try to add, view, and use these passes from within Google App.
Moving on, Google is also working to make sure that users are able to add their ID to their Google Wallet. Starting today, the feature is going to work for people in Maryland, where if they have an ID or driver's license, they will be able to add that to the app as long as their phone is running Android 8.0 or later. Google has stated that the feature will be available in Arizona, Colorado, and Georgia in the coming months.
Google has also stated that later this year, the company will roll out a new feature that would let you use your ID when booking a car from various services such as Turo or verifying various online accounts. All through the Google Wallet app.
Another feature that is coming to both Google Wallet and Google Messages is that you will soon be able to complete your entire travel check-in process using the Messages app, provided you have RCS enabled. Users will get access to their boarding passes or train tickets directly on the Messages app. Once you get that, you can save it in your Wallet. The feature will soon be rolled out to Vietnam Airlines and Renfe (Spain). In addition to that, restaurants can use restaurant reservation systems to send the details directly to the users, and these details can also be saved in Wallet.
Google Wallet is also going to get a new feature that will be in the form of corporate badges that will essentially let employees of the company access buildings, cafeterias, and other places in a building without having to carry a key. In addition to that, the app will help people in Germany save Deutschland tickets purchased at select transit agencies to the Wallet, so they can seamlessly use it.
Simply put, Google has done a mighty fine job and has made Google Wallet a lot more powerful and convenient than before, and I am glad that these updates are rolling out. The service is available in over 60 markets, with more markets coming soon, so you can expect it to take off and help you manage everything efficiently. You can read all about the new changes here.
Follow Wccftech on Google to get more of our news coverage in your feeds.
