The functionality of Google Wallet can vary, depending on where you live. In many parts of the world, it co-exists with GPay, and in places like the US, Google Wallet gets more attention.
I can’t use Google Wallet the same way as users in the US do, but the experience where I live isn’t dramatically different, except for when you use the app to make payments.
However, no matter where you live and what “version” of the app you use, everyone would love a smarter Google Wallet app.
I don’t know if it’s the easiest way, but adding Gemini to Google Wallet would certainly make it a lot smarter for everyone. A Gemini-powered Google Wallet app can transform the way you use a wallet app.
When I thought about what a Gemini-powered Google Wallet could look like, a lot came to my mind.
After organizing all my random ideas in order, that AI-heavy, dystopian Google Wallet made the current app feel outdated.
Gemini in Google Wallet would make passes more interactive
The current version of the Google Wallet app does a great job at storing all your loyalty cards, gift cards, transport passes, health IDs, even tickets, and more.
While Google Wallet isn’t my default wallet app, I use it for its seamless integration with Gmail.
After I get the booking confirmation in my Gmail, it automatically adds the pass to Google Wallet. However, if you have multiple passes on the Google Wallet home screen, it can be a little tricky to find the right one.
It would have been much easier with a prompt in Gemini inside the Google Wallet app. In addition, there is a lot more Gemini would’ve achieved had Google made it available in its Wallet app.
What I would’ve done the most is use Gemini to create a travel diary based on travel activities, like boarding tickets, train tickets, hotel reservations, event passes, and more.
The cherry-on-top moment would have been saving the travel diary in Google Docs. I would have typed another prompt and asked Gemini to save its response as a Google Docs file.
If Google ever makes this feature a reality, this is how I would preserve my memories from trips.
I would also have asked specific questions, like how many movies I watched in a given month. Instead of digging through years of archived passes manually, I would have just asked Gemini.
Gemini inside the Google Wallet app would have also helped me clean up some of my old passes that the app automatically saved in the Archived section.
It would also have been possible for Gemini to extract information from passes saved in the Archive and tell me about the city I visited or the airline I boarded the most.
These pieces of information may not seem useful every day, but they can be beneficial to quickly find the name of the hotel that you liked a lot from one of your previous trips.
This is far more convenient than scrolling endlessly in Google Wallet.
Gemini in Google Wallet could make your transaction history actually useful
The biggest advantage of having Gemini in Google Wallet would have been managing finances. As was the case with passes, your transaction history is available in Google Wallet.
However, the date doesn’t have much meaning unless you know how to interpret it. I wouldn’t have put in the effort into doing it had Gemini made its way to Google Wallet.
I would’ve just asked Gemini to show my purchases from last week, month, or year. To calculate how much I spent on a trip, I would have asked Gemini to pull that information from the transaction history in Google Wallet.
Instead of asking for raw transaction history for a trip, I would have asked to categorize spending into food, travel, entertainment, and other categories.
I would have become more aware of my spending habits. To do so, the very first would have been to ask Gemini in Google Wallet to compare my shopping expenses from last month.
It would have also helped me identify unusual spending spikes, highlight impulse-heavy spending, and share tips to avoid them in the future.
It would have been my ultimate finance guide.
Google Wallet feels incomplete without Gemini
Google Wallet is still a lot smarter than many other wallet apps on Android phones. I would even go so far as saying that it’s the best app when it comes to managing passes.
However, it still doesn’t feel enough after I saw what a Gemini integration in Google Maps, Google Photos, and other Google apps and services can do.
The moment I imagine what a Gemini can do in Google Wallet, the current version of the company’s wallet app feels surprisingly basic.
Google Wallet feels incomplete without Gemini, and only Google has itself to blame for raising my expectations.
