Google Wallet is now available in 45 countries worldwide
At Google I/O this year, Google did what it loves to do most: rebranding an existing service with some additional new features to put the spotlight back on it and get onboard some new users. Google Pay—which was once known as Google Wallet—was again rechristened to Google Wallet at I/O 22 with expanded functionality that includes support for car keys, vaccine cards, and more. The updated app was rolled out in 39 countries this July. Now, the big G has further expanded Google Wallet’s availability to six new regions.
The company has updated the Google Wallet support page to reflect the inclusion of the following new countries:
- Azerbaijan
- Iceland
- Moldova
- Qatar
- Serbia
- South Africa
You can use the Google Wallet app to make payments and store your boarding passes and digital IDs in the above countries. To be clear, though: you will see the Google Pay branding when making payments. Wallet support has not arrived on Wear OS smartwatches in these regions, so you are limited to making payments from your phone. With the latest round of addition, the rebranded Google Wallet app is available in 45 nations worldwide.
Unlike the previous Google Pay app, you can use the new Wallet app for more than just payments. You can add transit passes, digital IDs, driving licenses, COVID-19 vaccination certificates, boarding passes, tickets, digital car keys, and loyalty cards. Google will even let you add cards from issuers that do not support Wallet. Some of these cards are incompatible currently, but the big G plans to roll out support for them later in 2022. And for additional security and peace and mind, you can set items like your vaccine cards to be stored locally instead of syncing them with your Google account.
