Google Wallet revamped to let you pay your friends easily on iOS

By David Curry September 22, 2015

Google added a big revamp to Wallet on iOS earlier this week, pushing the payments service into the crowded peer-to-peer mobile market. The new Google Wallet app allows users to send money to anyone with an email address, which should make it easier to split bills for food, gas, and other commodities.

New users need to add a debit card or linked bank account to send money. Chrome users who use autofill settings should already have a debit card saved, and those details will be automatically attached once you sign into Google Wallet. Old features like customer loyalty programs and gift cards will be unavailable on the Wallet app after the update.

Recommended Videos

Google Wallet is set to compete with Facebook Messenger, Snapcash, and PayPal.Me, the three major peer-to-peer services, on iOS. The latter uses a URL link to process payments quickly, while Facebook and Snapchat both use messaging to send payments. Apple Pay currently offers no way to quickly send payments to friends or split the bill at a restaurant, meaning it might miss out on the peer-to-peer goldrush currently underway.

As PayPal revealed, adults are owed $51 billion worldwide in small debts to family and friends, but feel too uncomfortable tracking the person down for a few dollars. These services offer an easy way to message them and ask for the money.

Google’s other payments service, Android Pay, is still unavailable on iOS. Apple appears to be blocking all apps that try and use the NFC chip inside of the iPhone, making it impossible for Android Pay to launch. For iPhone owners wanting to use Google services, Wallet is all you’re going to get until Apple decides to open up its NFC chip to third-party app developers.

Topics

Former Digital Trends Contributor

David has been writing about technology for several years, following the latest trends and covering the largest events. He is…

Mobile

iOS 17’s coolest new feature is horrible news for Android users

iOS 17 contact posters

At the end of 2022, Google implored Apple to “get the message” and end the green-versus-blue bubble controversy by adopting RCS messaging. Apple’s response eventually came at WWDC 2023, where it introduced a new iOS 17 feature called Contact Posters, which instead of bringing everyone together, only furthers the us-versus-them split between Android and iOS.

If you thought the green/blue iMessage arguments could get fiery, there’s a lot more to come.
Blue good, green bad

Mobile

Everything Apple didn’t add to iOS 17

Apple’s WWDC 2023 keynote has come and gone, and with it came one of the biggest new announcements in years: Apple Vision Pro, which is Apple’s first foray into the VR/AR headset space. Of course, we also got software updates for existing products that we already have right now, including iOS 17 for the iPhone.

Before WWDC 2023 kicked off, there were a lot of rumors and speculation revolving around iOS 17 and what we would end up seeing —with the possibility of some “highly requested features from users.” Now that it’s been announced, it’s actually not as exciting as we thought, and some of the features that did get announced weren’t leaked.

Mobile

Will my iPhone get iOS 17? Here’s every supported model

Someone holding an iPhone 14 Pro Max and iPhone 14 Pro next to each other.

Apple announced a slew of updates to iOS — the operating system for iPhones — at WWDC 2023. With iOS 17, the company is rolling out features to not only apps like Phone, Messages, Safari, and Maps, but it's also updating AirDrop to make it even better.

But with every new iOS update, it begs an important question: Will my iPhone be updated? Probably, but also maybe not. Here's every iPhone that will (and won't) be updated to iOS 17.
iOS 17 is compatible with iPhone Xs and newer
Apple iPhone 8 Julian Chokkattu/Digital Trends