Google Wallet is finally launching in India, nearly two years after it was relaunched as a digital wallet platform in the US, according to a preview of the app that the company mistakenly posted on India's Google Play Store.
After TechCrunch spotted the app's listing, which has features such as allowing users to load loyalty cards to buy things, the company declined to confirm whether it would be coming to Android users soon. . But it then appears to have excerpted some details from the list, including what appear to be high-profile launch partners within India. (The app now features U.S. brands more generally.)
A little confusingly, Google has confirmed to us that it will continue to run Google Pay as a standalone app in the country, at least for now. This is a different strategy than almost every other market where Google has integrated wallet and pay experiences in a single wallet app.
“While we don’t have anything new to share at this time, we are always working to make the digital experience even more convenient for people in India. We continue to invest in our apps,” a Google spokesperson said in a statement to TechCrunch.
We understand that part of the reason may be because Google Pay is already big in this country. It is widely understood that India is Google's largest payments market in the world and its second largest payments app after PhonePe.
The Indian version of Google Wallet is expected to be different from the US one, especially since Google has confirmed plans to continue offering Google Pay as a payment service in India. For one, Google is considering offering local integration in its wallet app. The country has the largest Android user base.
A Google Wallet listing spotted by TechCrunch last week features screenshots of Indian airline Air India, state-owned bank State Bank of India, and multi-purpose chain PVR Inox, which allows loyalty payments to be made through these brands. – It is suggested that points can be earned and used. (Shortly after TechCrunch reached out to Google for comment, Google updated its list of U.S. brands.)
Image credit: Screenshot from Google Play Store
The existing Google Wallet app is not yet available for download from the Play Store in India, but it appears to have been working for some Android users in the country for some time, Indian outlet Beebom reported. However, functionality is limited. Users can add credit or debit cards for contactless payments, but the app does not support corporate or local loyalty programs in India.
These latest changes round out the many bounces Google has made between different financial services and different branded apps. Google Wallet was launched in 2011 as the company's payments solution. Later, Google launched his Android Pay. I then tried to replace my wallet and its Android Pay app with Google Pay. In 2022, Google relaunched its Wallet app as a digital wallet platform for Android, Wear OS, and Fitbit OS. However, in February this year, the search giant announced that it would replace Google Pay with the Wallet app in the US.
Unlike the US version, Google Pay in India uses the Indian government-backed framework Unified Payments Interface (UPI) to enable payments. This is one of the reasons why Google Pay is different in India, and one of the reasons why Google Pay chooses to continue offering another option to users who are already using Google Pay.
Google Pay is the second most used UPI app in India after Walmart's PhonePe, making it a clear reason for Google to continue supporting Google Pay while providing digital wallet-related experiences through its Wallet app. According to data posted by UPI's parent organization, the State Payments Corporation of India, the Google Pay app initiated more than 5 billion transactions totaling more than $83 billion in March.