Google Wallet isn’t my favorite app in the payment category. That perk is only reserved for Samsung Wallet, as I’m still holding onto my Samsung Galaxy S21.
I don’t know how many more days I’ll keep using my Galaxy phone, but I have a more definitive answer on whether I’ll keep using the Google Wallet app in the future.
The answer is an emphatic yes, even if it never becomes my default wallet app. However, I’m not sure if I should give Google credit for this or critique the company for not achieving Wallet’s true potential.
Despite being embedded into Google’s ecosystem, there is only one reason I keep coming back to its Wallet app. It should have been more, if not good enough to be the default wallet app.
It bothers me a little bit, but it isn’t something that lives on my head rent-free. Instead, I enjoy that one small Google Wallet feature that has a big impact on my entertainment life.
I keep coming back to Google Wallet because of its ability to seamlessly add my passes. Here is why I can’t give up on it.
Nobody does passes better than Google Wallet on Android
The first wallet I used was Samsung Wallet, and I tried Google’s equivalent much later. On a Samsung phone, it’s easy to set up Samsung Wallet, and so is Google Wallet.
All you do is log in to them with your Gmail account. It did only that much on both the apps before adding my debit and credit cards. But how they handle things after that is very different.
Google Wallet takes full advantage of being a Google product and delivers a seamless experience in handling your passes. My movie tickets and boarding passes automatically surface on Google Wallet after purchase.
That’s the default setting. I don’t have to enable anything to get those movie tickets on my Wallet app. They’re available as soon as I get a confirmation email on my Gmail account.
I wouldn’t have realized how useful it is if I didn’t have multiple events to attend from different organizers in a month.
All those event tickets automatically appeared in my Google Wallet after I purchased the tickets. That’s wildly useful because I no longer have to visit the respective organizers’ apps to produce the ticket at the entry gate.
I didn’t know this was a problem until I used the feature in Google Wallet for the first time, and I have never looked back since then.
I don’t get the same level of seamless experience on Samsung Wallet when it comes to managing passes. It forces me to keep going back to Google Wallet, at least once a month, because I’m a movie buff.
Google Wallet politely seeks my intervention when it fails
Google Wallet can’t auto-add all your event passes because the integration isn’t available for all.
I recently booked a ticket to watch Predators: Badlands, and Google automatically added it to the Wallet app. However, my ticket to a cricket match between India and South Africa didn’t appear on Google Wallet.
As much as I dislike the integration not being available for everyone, Google Wallet does offer an easy solution.
I took a screenshot of the ticket and uploaded it to Google Wallet, and that’s all that it took for it to show up right below my movie ticket. I can now see those tickets right on my Google Wallet home screen.
I like those tickets on my Google Wallet home screen, but many users don’t. If that’s you, the best way to hide them from your home screen is to use the archive feature.
Tap the event pass and select the three-dot view at the top, scroll down to find the Archive option. When you archive a pass, it moves from your home screen to the Archived passes section.
Google Wallet gets many things wrong, but you may still want it
Google Wallet doesn’t feel as seamless as the Samsung Wallet on my Galaxy handset. While comparing it to a Samsung app on a Samsung device may not be fair, Google Wallet has serious issues that it needs to fix.
One of the major complaints I have with the Wallet app is the lack of support for peer-to-peer (P2P) payments. I also don’t like how the app doesn’t perform the same way everywhere.
However, these issues may not be groundbreaking if you don’t have a Galaxy phone or have never used Samsung Wallet.
If you don’t have a Samsung phone, Google Wallet is your best bet because of the non-availability of the Samsung Wallet on other Android phones.
The difference between the two is marginal, especially if you are in the US. Another thing that works in its favor is that it’s from Google, so it holds the promise to get better on every Android phone in the future. Don’t give it a miss.
