Explore the latest updates on Google Wallet

Last year, we were thrilled to expand access to Google Wallet for users in more than 90 countries and territories. Recently we expanded Google Wallet adding +50 more countries, allowing users to view and use digital passes in the app and on the web. And we’ve worked hard to make Google Wallet even more robust, flexible, and ultimately, more feature-rich for you, our developer community.

Let’s dive into the exciting new capabilities we’ve announced at our I/O session this year.

Digital IDs: A foundation of trust, ease, and interoperability

Digital IDs in Google Wallet are live today, built with trust, ease of use, and interoperability as our top priorities. We’re committed to bringing more digital IDs to Google Wallet to support our users across the globe. Now, it’s easier to prove age and identity with Google Wallet.

Expanding Availability: Residents in Arkansas, Montana, Puerto Rico and West Virginia will soon be able to save their government-issued digital IDs to Google Wallet. And in Arizona, Georgia, Maryland and New Mexico, users will also be able to use their mobile IDs at the DMV for improved and streamlined customer experiences.

U.K. Passport Support: U.K. passport holders will soon be able to create digital ID passes with their U.K. passports and securely and conveniently store them in Google Wallet. At launch, we’re partnering with Rail Delivery Group, which will offer train travellers the opportunity to use their digital ID to verify that they meet the eligibility criteria for select Railcards on its Railcard retailing platform railcard.co.uk.

New use cases: New use cases are on the way in collaboration with our strong partner ecosystem. Soon, you’ll be able to use your digital ID to recover Amazon accounts, access online health services with CVS Health and MyChart by Epic, verify profiles on platforms like Uber and more.

Introducing the Digital Credentials API: To empower you to leverage these digital IDs, we collaborated with ecosystem partners in the W3C to develop our Digital Credentials API. This unified and secure framework allows apps and websites to request verifiable proof of age or identity directly from any digital wallet on a user’s device.

Connecting with families: Google Wallet enabled for kids

We’re very excited to provide parents and guardians a way to allow their children to access Google Wallet with appropriate supervision.

Parents and guardians in select countries can now allow their kids to tap and pay in stores, plus keep supported passes like event tickets, library cards, and gift cards, all in one place, on their Android devices. Safety is key, so parents have controls with Family Link. They will get notified by email about every transaction, and can easily track recent purchases, remove payment cards, and turn off passes access in Family Link.

Best of all, there are no changes in the Google Wallet API to support this enhancement.

Elevating user engagement: more granular notifications

Last year, we expanded mobile push notifications for the Google Wallet API, empowering you to deliver timely updates to your users. This year, we’re taking it a step further with the introduction of field update notifications.

Imagine being able to trigger a push notification not just on a general update, but specifically when a particular field within a pass changes. For example, when a user’s points balance crosses a threshold, or when their tier status is upgraded, a push notification can be triggered which will notify them that the data on their pass has changed. This granularity allows for a much more engaging and user-centric experience, driving higher engagement and utility on the pass.

Proximity power: introducing Nearby Passes Notifications

Speaking of notifications, we’re really excited to announce that we will support Nearby Passes notifications for the Google Wallet API. If enabled by the user, this feature is designed to provide timely and relevant information by alerting users about pertinent passes, such as loyalty cards, offers, boarding passes, or event tickets, when they approach a designated point of interest.

The Google Wallet app sends a contextual notification when the user is near a specific location. This notification serves as a direct gateway, allowing users to seamlessly access the associated pass with a single tap. This direct access promotes a more fluid and intuitive interaction with the stored passes, encouraging users to leverage the wallet’s capabilities more effectively.

To ensure user control and flexibility, we’ve introduced two new toggles to help users control their notification experience. The first is on the pass details screen, that allows users to turn on or off notifications from that specific pass. This applies to all notifications related to your pass, including field updates, and nearby passes notifications. The second is through the Nearby Passes notifications channel that allows users to control whether they receive nearby passes notifications. This empowers users to tailor their notification settings based on their specific needs and preferences.

Beyond transactions: unlocking Value Added Opportunities

Engaging users goes beyond just notifications. To address this, we’re introducing Value Added Opportunities which empowers you to integrate personalized modules directly into your passes, showcasing relevant deals, promotions, and additional services.

This is a significant step towards transforming passes into a more dynamic engagement surface for you and your users. By highlighting these value-added benefits, such as exclusive offers or upgrade options, you can guide users back to your app or website, creating a dynamic gateway for ongoing user interaction.

Bridging the gap: introducing the Pass Upgrade experience

Users have saved millions of passes by manually adding their loyalty cards to Google Wallet. These passes are unlinked from their merchant accounts, and, as a developer, you can’t update, or engage users on these passes. We’ve now introduced a Pass Upgrade experience that prompts users to sign into their merchant account and save a linked version of the pass. All you need to do is integrate with the Wallet API’s User Loyalty Program Enrollment feature, and ensure that users can save the linked pass once they successfully sign in. We’ll be expanding on this feature in the future to enable users who have added a pass using our “everything else” feature to link to the merchant account as well.

Seamless journeys: enhancements for travel

At last year’s I/O, we announced Auto Linked Passes, allowing you to add an additional related pass automatically to your users’ Google Wallet provided they already have an existing pass issued by you. Now, we’re happy to announce an expansion of this feature for airlines. Developers from airlines that integrate loyalty cards for their frequent flyer programs with the Google Wallet API can automatically push boarding passes to their users’ wallets once they check in for a flight.

Google Wallet users already benefit from streamlined travel on open-loop EMV transit systems, using tokenized payment methods for seamless fare transactions. Our solution further enhances this experience by providing riders with detailed journey and fare construction details. The tokenized open loop payment card acts as a bridge between user payments and transit systems, facilitating this communication.

Building on this foundation, we’re excited to announce the upcoming expansion of Google Transit Insights to support specific pass types sales, such as season passes, directly linked to the users’ tokenized open loop payment card. With this new capability, developers will soon be able to leverage the Google Wallet APIs to implement seamless pass purchasing and management, eliminating the need for separate transit cards.

Users of Google Wallet will now see real-time transit pass updates, such as on-time or delayed train status, directly on their passes. This enhanced experience is powered by the Google Wallet API’s new live status support and a seamless integration with Google Maps. Train operators can enable this feature by ensuring their tickets contain the required fields and providing a real-time GTFS feed, making it accessible to major operators worldwide.

Personalization and security: Secure Private Images

For some use cases, it’s important for you to create a pass that includes a profile photo of the user you’re distributing the pass to. To achieve this, we’re enabling Secure Private Images on passes.

With this feature, you’re able to define passes that include images that are only accessible to the holder of the pass. For example, this allows you to create digital business cards, membership passes, or event tickets with the user profile image on it.

Please note that this feature can’t be used for official identity verification.

Learn more and build with Google Wallet

Google Wallet continues to evolve, offering developers powerful new capabilities to create richer, more engaging user experiences. From expanding digital identity features like the Digital Credentials API and secure private images, to enhancing user engagement with granular notifications and Value Added Opportunities, and streamlining travel with expanded Auto Linked Passes and real-time transit updates, these features are designed to help you build innovative solutions that connect more deeply with your users and unlock new value within the Google Wallet platform.

Please take a look at the following resources to learn more: