Google Pay app will no longer be available(support.google.com)
support.google.com
Google Pay app will no longer be available
https://support.google.com/googlepay/answer/14555219?hl=en
97 comments
I forgot where it was mentioned [1] that the mess comes from a poor management of international feature list.
In particular, Google wanted it to be successful in India.
But the prior app was designed with USA sensibilities and requirements. Such as, oh, requiring an email and Google account! The thought was that this wouldn't fly in India, and it had to work with just a phone number.
I'm sure there were perverse/crossed incentives on delivery deadlines that lead the leadership team to decide that completely breaking the existing flow/splitting the userbase was the way forward.
[1] Perhaps this Ars Technica article from 2022: https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2022/07/google-wallet-rolls-...
In particular, Google wanted it to be successful in India.
But the prior app was designed with USA sensibilities and requirements. Such as, oh, requiring an email and Google account! The thought was that this wouldn't fly in India, and it had to work with just a phone number.
I'm sure there were perverse/crossed incentives on delivery deadlines that lead the leadership team to decide that completely breaking the existing flow/splitting the userbase was the way forward.
[1] Perhaps this Ars Technica article from 2022: https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2022/07/google-wallet-rolls-...
Google had a very successful payments app called Tez in India. They merged that into Google pay during a flutter rewrite so that they can say things like “Google pay has 200 million users in 120 countries” even though all 200 million of those were in India.
In India, Google pay is a client for the UPI platform. You could send money from Google pay to Whatsapp pay for example.
In India, Google pay is a client for the UPI platform. You could send money from Google pay to Whatsapp pay for example.
Requiring a Google account would indeed not fly. The project was called next billion users and it's objective was to seek internet penetration into areas of India where internet literacy is nonexistent.
As a part of that initiative you had manufacturers building super low-cost Android smartphones that came preloaded with Google apps and people could put a SIM card in. The backing system of GPay in India called UPI works similarly so this app could never have that second layer of auth as a mandatory wrapper and spread where Google wanted it to spread.
Those decisions gave them 200M users on the app in the country.
As a part of that initiative you had manufacturers building super low-cost Android smartphones that came preloaded with Google apps and people could put a SIM card in. The backing system of GPay in India called UPI works similarly so this app could never have that second layer of auth as a mandatory wrapper and spread where Google wanted it to spread.
Those decisions gave them 200M users on the app in the country.
You mean Google TalkVoiceWaveBuzzDiscoHangoutsmeetHuddleHangoutsAlloDuoHangoutsmeetHangoutschatPhonemessagingChat?
Google does not mess around with adherence to "naming things is hard."
Google does not mess around with adherence to "naming things is hard."
They might have an easier time naming things if they weren't exhausting names on killed products (;
Bart -> Gemmini -> ??
Bart -> Gemmini -> Gemma -> Jemima -> Pearl Milling Co.
It all goes full circle!
Seriously though, they need to roll improvements into what they're already shipping and stop invented the wheel 20 times over.
It all goes full circle!
Seriously though, they need to roll improvements into what they're already shipping and stop invented the wheel 20 times over.
*Gemini
I worked on Pixel for several years and used to excuse this stuff.
Now, among other things, every time I need to open the app, I inevitably search for Google Pay instead of Wallet.
Maybe I'll remember now that this happened.
Android Pay -> Google Pay seemed fair, but IIRC, Google Pay -> Google Wallet was just a combo of shipping-the-org-chart and Apple me-too'ing.
At the time, they were also leaking that there was going to be a Google credit card / true bank account launched, because Apple had just done that. [^1]
There was no greater force internally than Apple. I swear the only thing 90% of leads _actually_ wanted to get done was something close enough to last year's Apple announcements that they could say it with a straight face.
[^1] https://www.wsj.com/articles/google-is-scrapping-its-plan-to...
Now, among other things, every time I need to open the app, I inevitably search for Google Pay instead of Wallet.
Maybe I'll remember now that this happened.
Android Pay -> Google Pay seemed fair, but IIRC, Google Pay -> Google Wallet was just a combo of shipping-the-org-chart and Apple me-too'ing.
At the time, they were also leaking that there was going to be a Google credit card / true bank account launched, because Apple had just done that. [^1]
There was no greater force internally than Apple. I swear the only thing 90% of leads _actually_ wanted to get done was something close enough to last year's Apple announcements that they could say it with a straight face.
[^1] https://www.wsj.com/articles/google-is-scrapping-its-plan-to...
That is not entirely accurate or complete. The other week I dug up not one, not two, but three Google Wallet credit cards, from Discover and MasterCard, made between 10/2012 and 10/2013. The one from April 2013 even has NFC. They started as virtual cards that charged your real credit card(s), but the plan was to do more.
There was a collaboration (grant?) with Ross Anderson's team in Cambridge on secure NFC payments. Android supported those in 2013, but, of course, carriers had control of the secure element, so everything got derailed, to the point that Google tried desperate workarounds such as HCE, without luck. As we have all seen, tap to pay was actually invented by Apple in 2014.
So, yeah, things were even crazier and more complicated than you recall, but it wasn't always the case that people were copying Apple.
There was a collaboration (grant?) with Ross Anderson's team in Cambridge on secure NFC payments. Android supported those in 2013, but, of course, carriers had control of the secure element, so everything got derailed, to the point that Google tried desperate workarounds such as HCE, without luck. As we have all seen, tap to pay was actually invented by Apple in 2014.
So, yeah, things were even crazier and more complicated than you recall, but it wasn't always the case that people were copying Apple.
I got there in 2016, so I'm bemused: there's a whole other layer that happened before. And Google Wallet changed to Google Pay which changed to Android Pay which changed to Google Pay and Google Wallet which is now changing to Google Wallet. The more things change...
You're right, it wasn't just a Google credit card, I was referring specifically to this[^1], in 2020: Apple Card was announced as 'Apple is your bank'. (the article in my previous comment is the sunsetting of this rumor)
[^1] https://www.theverge.com/2020/4/17/21225276/google-apple-car...
You're right, it wasn't just a Google credit card, I was referring specifically to this[^1], in 2020: Apple Card was announced as 'Apple is your bank'. (the article in my previous comment is the sunsetting of this rumor)
[^1] https://www.theverge.com/2020/4/17/21225276/google-apple-car...
Yeah, that's the history I remember. It's been a 10+ year branding...journey. To put it nicely.
> There was no greater force internally than Apple. I swear the only thing 90% of leads _actually_ wanted to get done was something close enough to last year's Apple announcements close enough that they could claim it was the same.
I’m sure you’re right but this sounds like a dark joke from outside given how many people I know who stopped using Google products due to the kind of churn Apple avoids. A decade ago my friends & coworkers favored Google for messaging and payment but the iOS users also used iMessage and Apple Pay. Today we use those services even more but even the Android loyalists stopped following Google’s migrations about 5 years ago and we switched to Signal and Venmo for cross-platform use. Periodically we’ll speculate about whether there is yet a “next person to tell users they need to install a new app is fired” policy yet.
I’m sure you’re right but this sounds like a dark joke from outside given how many people I know who stopped using Google products due to the kind of churn Apple avoids. A decade ago my friends & coworkers favored Google for messaging and payment but the iOS users also used iMessage and Apple Pay. Today we use those services even more but even the Android loyalists stopped following Google’s migrations about 5 years ago and we switched to Signal and Venmo for cross-platform use. Periodically we’ll speculate about whether there is yet a “next person to tell users they need to install a new app is fired” policy yet.
Let's say:
- you add 80% of what Apple does, every year[^1]
- every year, you put the same clique on this year's Apple project
- that clique is formed by overworking, without complaint, to work around a complete lack of interest in planning / conversation
- only interact with and reward that clique (after all, they're working on the priority project this year, and focus is good)
- rinse, lather, repeat, for 7 years.
You'll find:
- you have 20% of what Apple actually built (80% ^ 7 years)
- your new management layer punches down, because they've always had right of first refusal on any work
- your new management layer also has 0 interest in planning
- your new management layer believes any interest in planning is a form of aggression and/or whining ('thrive in ambiguity!')
- nothing gets done except this year's Apple project
- you don't have anyone to nurture and sustain quality
- any initiative to repair anything requires a new team adjacent to the actual team, a fresh start, and a rebrand
I wish Pixel enough longevity that it gets terraformed[^2].
[^1] I believe that's _very_ generous, my figure is 60%.
[^2] Orgs that aren't as public facing and broken go through an elongated, silent, process where the leads 2 levels up leave in a bunch, then steadily 80% of line management is replaced with people in dress shirts from Motorola/Qualcomm/Google Search, and about 50% of grunts churn. Over 2-3 years.
- you add 80% of what Apple does, every year[^1]
- every year, you put the same clique on this year's Apple project
- that clique is formed by overworking, without complaint, to work around a complete lack of interest in planning / conversation
- only interact with and reward that clique (after all, they're working on the priority project this year, and focus is good)
- rinse, lather, repeat, for 7 years.
You'll find:
- you have 20% of what Apple actually built (80% ^ 7 years)
- your new management layer punches down, because they've always had right of first refusal on any work
- your new management layer also has 0 interest in planning
- your new management layer believes any interest in planning is a form of aggression and/or whining ('thrive in ambiguity!')
- nothing gets done except this year's Apple project
- you don't have anyone to nurture and sustain quality
- any initiative to repair anything requires a new team adjacent to the actual team, a fresh start, and a rebrand
I wish Pixel enough longevity that it gets terraformed[^2].
[^1] I believe that's _very_ generous, my figure is 60%.
[^2] Orgs that aren't as public facing and broken go through an elongated, silent, process where the leads 2 levels up leave in a bunch, then steadily 80% of line management is replaced with people in dress shirts from Motorola/Qualcomm/Google Search, and about 50% of grunts churn. Over 2-3 years.
It's so sad when Android invents something truly useful and then abandons it, only to find Apple doing it a few years later.
The first culprit that comes to mind is swipe to the camera on the lockscreen - useful, but not Apple enough, so they delete it. Then, Apple ships it, but Google already deleted it.
The first culprit that comes to mind is swipe to the camera on the lockscreen - useful, but not Apple enough, so they delete it. Then, Apple ships it, but Google already deleted it.
Wireless charging, face unlock, a bump-style sharing system, NFC, etc. Android did so much first, abandoned it after a year or two, only to see Apple introduce it as revolutionary.
You forgot GPay! Which I think is a different app (I mean, it has a different name...) though I can't say I'm sure (Wikipedia says they're the same, but the source they use directly contradicts them). It's really comical at this point.
The previous Google Pay app was definitely killed off and you had to install "GPay" instead. I /think/ Google Pay may have been a rename of the original Android Pay app, but not sure.
In India, it was Tez, then Google pay (IIRC two apps with this name existed at same time), then Gpay.
Which is why I'll never use it, because I don't know when they'll cancel it. It also makes it seem like this type of service is going away, even though Google Wallet is around.
I had the misfortune of working on this garbage of a project. One of the most pathetic software projects with some of the worse people I have ever worked in my life.
Google Pay India is very successful. Not because it is actually good but rather the fact that it does not face the pressure to be very profitable unlike its competitors like PayTM (which now is pretty much dead). It is a good product with basic feature that work (despite being somewhat slow app) most of the times. Google is not aggressive in trying to sell their users crappy fintech products or peddling gambling apps and other scammy offers. The fact that Google is slow turned out to be good for them.
At some point Google VP Ceasar Sengupta decided to shut down some unit and create Gpay Us app. His weird slogan for this was "Time of technology in finance is now" as if this guy was living under some rock for last 10 years. Then all engineers under the shut down unit were moved to this Gpay Us app project. For many of us this was an opportunity to get promoted by claiming "launch impact" so no one complained.
The problems here were engineering. Google decided that they will share the codebase and practices with Google India app which was built in flutter. The people who built it were pretty third rate snobs and treated this codebase as their own little empire. They saw this as an opportunity to get promoted again. These morons then created needless processes to harass gpay us team. Things like if you want to add a new page in the app create a doc first with the same code in the Google doc so it can be reviewed in Google doc first. Then write real code. As a new person in Google I thought may be this is how the company rolls.
Weeks passed and absolutely no code was submitted because the Singapore team would not approve any CL. Also most CL comments were about shaving the yak e.g. "Create a feature flag" for this page which does not even have an entry point yet. You create a feature flag and another engineer comments that feature flag is not needed since page does not have an entry point yet. For some weird unknown reason (I think DEI points for promo) the app has crazy focus on accessibility (not with intention to make product better for others but for the sake of engineering complexity) which means everytime you changed something it would create like 100 screenshots that needed to be reviewed manually which led to wild goose chases. For example you change a button color and someone else comments that the top bar does not look good (though not related the CL).
At that point it was clear to me that everyone is focused on promotions and no one gives shit about the product or users. The app was launched and soon the VP and most of the leadership left (or may be asked to quit) along with most of the senior engineers who then created "https://artafinance.com/". I suspect these people were denied promo and went sour and quit.
After that I left the team pretty quickly and heard the same horror stories of how rolling out one feature like say changing a button color would require around 15 primary approvals. There were concepts like "small council" meeting and "large council" meetings to review stuff and even after some shitty small feature was launched there were like 2 separate teams reviewing "analytics". The numbers were so tiny that some of my personal apps have more users and more activity than this Gpay US app.
Luckily I learned the game of how to get promoted at Google by cynical, launching stuff no one needs and by helping others with their own promotion goals.
Google Pay India is very successful. Not because it is actually good but rather the fact that it does not face the pressure to be very profitable unlike its competitors like PayTM (which now is pretty much dead). It is a good product with basic feature that work (despite being somewhat slow app) most of the times. Google is not aggressive in trying to sell their users crappy fintech products or peddling gambling apps and other scammy offers. The fact that Google is slow turned out to be good for them.
At some point Google VP Ceasar Sengupta decided to shut down some unit and create Gpay Us app. His weird slogan for this was "Time of technology in finance is now" as if this guy was living under some rock for last 10 years. Then all engineers under the shut down unit were moved to this Gpay Us app project. For many of us this was an opportunity to get promoted by claiming "launch impact" so no one complained.
The problems here were engineering. Google decided that they will share the codebase and practices with Google India app which was built in flutter. The people who built it were pretty third rate snobs and treated this codebase as their own little empire. They saw this as an opportunity to get promoted again. These morons then created needless processes to harass gpay us team. Things like if you want to add a new page in the app create a doc first with the same code in the Google doc so it can be reviewed in Google doc first. Then write real code. As a new person in Google I thought may be this is how the company rolls.
Weeks passed and absolutely no code was submitted because the Singapore team would not approve any CL. Also most CL comments were about shaving the yak e.g. "Create a feature flag" for this page which does not even have an entry point yet. You create a feature flag and another engineer comments that feature flag is not needed since page does not have an entry point yet. For some weird unknown reason (I think DEI points for promo) the app has crazy focus on accessibility (not with intention to make product better for others but for the sake of engineering complexity) which means everytime you changed something it would create like 100 screenshots that needed to be reviewed manually which led to wild goose chases. For example you change a button color and someone else comments that the top bar does not look good (though not related the CL).
At that point it was clear to me that everyone is focused on promotions and no one gives shit about the product or users. The app was launched and soon the VP and most of the leadership left (or may be asked to quit) along with most of the senior engineers who then created "https://artafinance.com/". I suspect these people were denied promo and went sour and quit.
After that I left the team pretty quickly and heard the same horror stories of how rolling out one feature like say changing a button color would require around 15 primary approvals. There were concepts like "small council" meeting and "large council" meetings to review stuff and even after some shitty small feature was launched there were like 2 separate teams reviewing "analytics". The numbers were so tiny that some of my personal apps have more users and more activity than this Gpay US app.
Luckily I learned the game of how to get promoted at Google by cynical, launching stuff no one needs and by helping others with their own promotion goals.
Looks like the typical offshoring development experience to me, thanks for sharing your history.
It's the furthest thing from "offshore" if "onshore" for you is the US. The US team had a mandate to put features that are more tuned to US sensibilities into a wildly successful app that caters to a completely different style of market and is wildly successful there.
It was natural for OPs team to have pushback since they have no knowledge of what works in India even if the entire app was developed in the US by a different team. The fact that Google culture that makes it so easy to do said pushback was just icing on the cake.
It was natural for OPs team to have pushback since they have no knowledge of what works in India even if the entire app was developed in the US by a different team. The fact that Google culture that makes it so easy to do said pushback was just icing on the cake.
You have misunderstood.
There is no "offshore" involved. Google Pay India's team was primarily based on Singapore (and some India) working for Google Singapore and Google India. Google US app's team was spread all around the world but mostly USA and Singapore.
There is no "offshore" involved. Google Pay India's team was primarily based on Singapore (and some India) working for Google Singapore and Google India. Google US app's team was spread all around the world but mostly USA and Singapore.
This is great insider information. I followed blog posts at the time that made it pretty obvious this was a Ceasar Sengupta misadventure. The use of Flutter was also painfully obvious as the app did not behave in normal ways and had performance problems with simple interactions.
Only Google could find a way to not make money with an app that processes it.
The Google Pay Android app is such a mess. I live in Russia, where the app is now useless for its main purpose, but I still use it for loyalty cards. But whenever I travel abroad, and use it for actual payments, it changes its entire UI to some supposedly newer design. And then reverts back to the old one when I return! IIRC it even changes its name and icon.
Someone, somewhere, somehow, wrote the code that does that. Someone thought that it's a nice idea to pack two copies of the app into one apk. And apparently no one ever questioned this decision. I can't even...
Someone, somewhere, somehow, wrote the code that does that. Someone thought that it's a nice idea to pack two copies of the app into one apk. And apparently no one ever questioned this decision. I can't even...
[deleted]
> Common questions about these changes
Does not include a reason for this change or why is it a US only change.
Does not include a reason for this change or why is it a US only change.
So in the beginning there was Android Pay, which later became Google Pay in the US and Europe.
For India, Google launched an app called Tez (and later renamed Google Pay) there which was more adapted for the India market, doing things like phone number identities and UPI integration.
This worked so well in India, that they promoted the head of the India app to be in charge of payments everywhere, and so his plan was to replace the global Google Pay with Indian Google Pay. They started with this in the US, and it flopped hard, both in terms of uptake and reviews. It turns out in many non-India markets (including the US) people don't really want to accept the tradeoffs of phone number identities for anything that doesn't directly compete with their SMS app.
So the leader responsible resigned, and the new leadership instead updated the old global Google Pay as Google Wallet. India stuck with Google Pay (formerly known as Tez) since that worked there, and the rest of the world never moved from Google Pay (fka Android Pay) to Google Pay (fka Tez), so only had a single Google Pay at one time. However, Google had now split their userbase across two apps so was scared to shut either there, so the US stayed in limbo for two years.
This is now resolving the US based limbo by shutting down Google Pay (fka Tez) in the US, so that the US joins Europe in only using Google Wallet (fka Google Pay fka Android Pay).
In short:
Before:
- India: Google Pay (fka Tez)
- Europe: Google Pay (fka Android Pay)
- US: Google Pay (fka Android Pay) and GPay (fka Tez)
After:
India: Google Pay (fka Tez)
US & Europe: Google Wallet (fka Google Pay fka Android Pay)
For India, Google launched an app called Tez (and later renamed Google Pay) there which was more adapted for the India market, doing things like phone number identities and UPI integration.
This worked so well in India, that they promoted the head of the India app to be in charge of payments everywhere, and so his plan was to replace the global Google Pay with Indian Google Pay. They started with this in the US, and it flopped hard, both in terms of uptake and reviews. It turns out in many non-India markets (including the US) people don't really want to accept the tradeoffs of phone number identities for anything that doesn't directly compete with their SMS app.
So the leader responsible resigned, and the new leadership instead updated the old global Google Pay as Google Wallet. India stuck with Google Pay (formerly known as Tez) since that worked there, and the rest of the world never moved from Google Pay (fka Android Pay) to Google Pay (fka Tez), so only had a single Google Pay at one time. However, Google had now split their userbase across two apps so was scared to shut either there, so the US stayed in limbo for two years.
This is now resolving the US based limbo by shutting down Google Pay (fka Tez) in the US, so that the US joins Europe in only using Google Wallet (fka Google Pay fka Android Pay).
In short:
Before:
- India: Google Pay (fka Tez)
- Europe: Google Pay (fka Android Pay)
- US: Google Pay (fka Android Pay) and GPay (fka Tez)
After:
India: Google Pay (fka Tez)
US & Europe: Google Wallet (fka Google Pay fka Android Pay)
This should be the canonical answer pasted to the top. You forget to mention the head of Tez was actually based in Singapore, though, and Singapore was the one other country that was eligible for the "new" gPay.
What's unclear to me, now as an outside, is whether or not Google is planning to migrate the actually useful features of gPay (p2p payments, payment/expense tracking, loyalty/discounts) to Wallet, or if Wallet is going to only host cards & handle tap-to-pay. I certainly hope for the former, and if they weren't going to that they'd have said so in the email.
What's unclear to me, now as an outside, is whether or not Google is planning to migrate the actually useful features of gPay (p2p payments, payment/expense tracking, loyalty/discounts) to Wallet, or if Wallet is going to only host cards & handle tap-to-pay. I certainly hope for the former, and if they weren't going to that they'd have said so in the email.
I do not have any insider information but chances of that happening are next to zero. The reason is pretty simple. P2P money movement is very expensive per transaction and does not generate revenue. It is typically a growth strategy. However Wallet app ships with the phone so growth problem is solved. Google would be happy if you use Venmo or something for P2P.
> US & Europe: Google Wallet (fka Google Pay fka Android Pay)
I think you’re missing an fka Google Wallet in that chain. Wikipedia has a family tree under the “History” section for that service (later renamed): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_Pay_Send
I think you’re missing an fka Google Wallet in that chain. Wikipedia has a family tree under the “History” section for that service (later renamed): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_Pay_Send
This should be a top level comment. Very informative, thanks!
I have never been able to get one of the Pay apps to work. One of them fails (on I think phone verification actually, funny) and I've never been able to resolve it even with Google One support.
Then I've always been able to add cards and use tap to pay.
This might explain my confusion.
Then I've always been able to add cards and use tap to pay.
This might explain my confusion.
google pay lore master
Google Pay was rebranded as Google Wallet in the rest of the world in 2022. Only US and Singapore kept the Google Pay brand. (No idea why)
https://www.androidpolice.com/google-pay-becomes-google-wall...
https://www.androidpolice.com/google-pay-becomes-google-wall...
Probably regulatory compliance.
FTA:
Can I still use the tap to pay feature in stores?
Anywhere you normally use Google Pay — from checking out online to tapping and paying in stores — remains the same. If you use your Android phone to shop in stores where Google Pay is accepted, you can continue to tap to pay in stores with the Google Wallet app.
Can I still use the tap to pay feature in stores?
Anywhere you normally use Google Pay — from checking out online to tapping and paying in stores — remains the same. If you use your Android phone to shop in stores where Google Pay is accepted, you can continue to tap to pay in stores with the Google Wallet app.
June 4th is an odd shutdown date, and it makes no sense that they’d terminate offers early. I suspect external pressures exist here. The shutdown date assigned is precisely 16 weeks and 2 business days following the court decision on February 9th that CPRA is now active in California:
https://www.foley.com/insights/publications/2024/02/ca-appel...
While this could be merely a coincidence, given that the US app offers “deals” to consumers — which are, I can safely assume, paid for by selling the user’s data to a third party — I imagine that the Friday court decision led Google to terminate offers immediately so that they cannot be not found in violation of CPRA, and then shutdown the app as without offers it’s redundant.
https://www.foley.com/insights/publications/2024/02/ca-appel...
While this could be merely a coincidence, given that the US app offers “deals” to consumers — which are, I can safely assume, paid for by selling the user’s data to a third party — I imagine that the Friday court decision led Google to terminate offers immediately so that they cannot be not found in violation of CPRA, and then shutdown the app as without offers it’s redundant.
Lol. You have no idea how Google functions. They can not make this decision in days. The shutdown was planned at least 6 months ago (I have no internal knowledge now but very likely).
Strange that Apple can make Apple pay work so well but Google keeps botching it. If nothing else, just copy the product and build what Apple has built, but for Android.
If they could do that, they’d have an iMessage competitor by now. Last Android I used was the Pixel 3 and still couldn’t text from my laptop, something Apple has had for more than a decade.
I have been texting from my laptop from 2010 via Google Voice.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_Messages
Web support was released in 2018
Web support was released in 2018
Yes, but the wiki is referencing this BI article[0]. Here is the relevant excerpt saying it was bad at first and people were missing messages:
>> At launch, Messages for web wasn't very good. It worked, but it wasn't very reliable. Several texts didn't send properly, and I missed a bunch of text messages, too. It clearly wasn't the solution that would bring the iMessage functionality to the Android ecosystem, and I gave it up pretty quickly.
>> Fast forward to late 2019 when I recently started using Messages for web again, and I can gleefully report that it's actually pretty good now. I can send and receive photos, videos, GIFs, emoji, sticker, and good old-fashioned text messages, as well as group messages almost entirely reliably. There's only been a couple instances where a message didn't send, but I'm attributing that to the fact that I have Messages on at least a half-dozen computers at the moment.
It took more than a year before this feature worked properly. I don't even see the point in Google working on messaging apps anymore. They lost the battle to Whatsapp that had web working way before.
0. https://www.businessinsider.com/google-messages-for-web-how-...
>> At launch, Messages for web wasn't very good. It worked, but it wasn't very reliable. Several texts didn't send properly, and I missed a bunch of text messages, too. It clearly wasn't the solution that would bring the iMessage functionality to the Android ecosystem, and I gave it up pretty quickly.
>> Fast forward to late 2019 when I recently started using Messages for web again, and I can gleefully report that it's actually pretty good now. I can send and receive photos, videos, GIFs, emoji, sticker, and good old-fashioned text messages, as well as group messages almost entirely reliably. There's only been a couple instances where a message didn't send, but I'm attributing that to the fact that I have Messages on at least a half-dozen computers at the moment.
It took more than a year before this feature worked properly. I don't even see the point in Google working on messaging apps anymore. They lost the battle to Whatsapp that had web working way before.
0. https://www.businessinsider.com/google-messages-for-web-how-...
Fwiw, if you're using SMS still and on purpose, the Messages app is as good as it gets. It is actually pleasurable to use, and there are a lot of cases where trying to get friends/acquaintances to identify the right 3rd party messaging app to use (where inevitably at least one has to install something new), Messages is a great option.
To be completely clear, I am impressed with how well Google has evolved the remaining Comms apps (Meet, Chat, Messages) over the past three years -- especially Meet & Messages. Considering where things stood five years ago, it's been an epiphany.
To be completely clear, I am impressed with how well Google has evolved the remaining Comms apps (Meet, Chat, Messages) over the past three years -- especially Meet & Messages. Considering where things stood five years ago, it's been an epiphany.
I'm literally texting from my Pixel 3 on my laptop now.
(Tho obviously I need to replace the phone, since Google stopped released Android versions for it.)
(Tho obviously I need to replace the phone, since Google stopped released Android versions for it.)
Windows has Phone Link to do this with Android. It's only been around for ~6 years or so
It’s also a buggy piece of crap. It works for me on one of my two computers, but only after resetting it multiple times. On the other, I’ve never been able to get it to work.
On Apple devices, you just sign in and it all works.
On Apple devices, you just sign in and it all works.
Yeah but it sucks. KDE Connect is the way to go.
Android has Telegram for that ;)
As a bonus it's also iPhone compatible.
As a bonus it's also iPhone compatible.
> something Apple has had for more than a decade
How do I text from my iPhone using my laptop? Running Windows 10. Would love to know.
How do I text from my iPhone using my laptop? Running Windows 10. Would love to know.
it's just a name change, which actually happened a while ago.
i agree they're incompetent with their constant rebranding, but this isn't really a functional change or an issue at all for users
i agree they're incompetent with their constant rebranding, but this isn't really a functional change or an issue at all for users
I use Google Pay for many subscriptions, as well as every single time I take the subway.
Am I to understand that is all going away? Or am I confusing "Google pay app" with some other vaguely-named Google feature?
Am I to understand that is all going away? Or am I confusing "Google pay app" with some other vaguely-named Google feature?
My read is that there's the Google Pay app (that currently handles tap-to-pay + all your payments), and Google Wallet (which handles cards only). In the near future, Wallet will handles cards + payments (including subscriptions) + tap-to-pay... but it's unclear whether Google is still going to have Offers & P2P payments as they exist in the current Pay app.
"While in-store and online payments via Google Pay remain unchanged"
Subway payments should keep working.
Subway payments should keep working.
Do not worry. This is Google's fucked up branding. They are shutting down phone app not the Google Pay product.
So I did some research apparently they have gone full circle now.
It started as Google Wallet renamed to Android Pay then renamed to Google Pay then split into Google Pay and Google Wallet and now back to just Google Wallet.
Google is a fucking mess lol. I know Sundar has been great for shareholder, but man maybe it's time for a change.
A fake post about them getting rid of Gmail next year is going viral on Twitter and you bet people are believing it or double checking because it's Google.
It started as Google Wallet renamed to Android Pay then renamed to Google Pay then split into Google Pay and Google Wallet and now back to just Google Wallet.
Google is a fucking mess lol. I know Sundar has been great for shareholder, but man maybe it's time for a change.
A fake post about them getting rid of Gmail next year is going viral on Twitter and you bet people are believing it or double checking because it's Google.
It gets worse though, the app actually split into "Google Pay" and the new "GPay", where the latter was originally an India-only app they reworked for the rest of the world. In old Google Pay you'd see messages that it'll stop working soon and that you should migrate to the new GPay, but if you ignored them you could still use it. Then, they eventually overhauled old Google Pay back to "Google Wallet", and now they're telling people in the US remaining on "new" GPay that it's deprecated and to switch back...
Pulled precisely from the Google textbook. Specifically the chapter on Hangouts.
Pulled precisely from the Google textbook. Specifically the chapter on Hangouts.
Don’t worry, they’ll kill the product years later due to “low customer demand.”
I likely lost touch with some friends over the years because of general confusion over Google Talk, GTalk through GMail, Google+ Hangouts, later Hangouts, GChat (which I understand to be separate from the current Google Chat?), and Google Chat. The ones I've kept in contact with all agreed to move back to SMS and email.
Meanwhile ten years after Apple supported adding boarding passes to their wallet, I finally managed to force a plane ticket into my Google wallet by taking a picture of the barcode, so there's that.
Meanwhile ten years after Apple supported adding boarding passes to their wallet, I finally managed to force a plane ticket into my Google wallet by taking a picture of the barcode, so there's that.
> I know Sundar has been great...
Think the execs responsible for this were excused en masse or quit: https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2021/08/google-pay-team-repo...
Some founded a fintech company that now also does AI, because why not.
Think the execs responsible for this were excused en masse or quit: https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2021/08/google-pay-team-repo...
Some founded a fintech company that now also does AI, because why not.
This sort of thing is part of Google’s culture now. I don’t understand how ousting a team could forgive all the similar issues they had before.
No. The VP, Director of Engineering, Product Manager everyone quit. These people have been working 10+ years with Google.
Google processes $XXXB payments a year. This means they have their own internal Stripe like payment processing system which serves almost like an independent company to Google's various internal products.
Google Wallet is an Android only feature which was possible because of NFC etc. Its primary purpose was to seek parity with Apple Pay. This team can be seen as Android's part.
Google Pay is what merchants display. It means you can tap your phone and pay (using your wallet). It also allows online websites to accept payments using "Google Pay" button.
Gpay => Is the App. This is like Venmo/Cash app.
You might ask why create Gpay App when you have Google Wallet ? The answer is "India". Google Wallet is worthless in India because no one had cards and no one accepts them. Also phones do not have NFC. But India has UPI which allows easy real time transfers using QR codes and phone numbers. It made perfect sense for Google to create an App to cater to this case in India and it was widely successful.
For some reason some leaders thought they could replicate the same success in USA using the SAME APP. This was nonsensical because in USA you need to iterate fast and launch things even faster. Piggybacking on Indian App which has like 300M monthly active users was a bit like you trying to take your 1996 camry and trying to make it an EV.
Google Wallet is an Android only feature which was possible because of NFC etc. Its primary purpose was to seek parity with Apple Pay. This team can be seen as Android's part.
Google Pay is what merchants display. It means you can tap your phone and pay (using your wallet). It also allows online websites to accept payments using "Google Pay" button.
Gpay => Is the App. This is like Venmo/Cash app.
You might ask why create Gpay App when you have Google Wallet ? The answer is "India". Google Wallet is worthless in India because no one had cards and no one accepts them. Also phones do not have NFC. But India has UPI which allows easy real time transfers using QR codes and phone numbers. It made perfect sense for Google to create an App to cater to this case in India and it was widely successful.
For some reason some leaders thought they could replicate the same success in USA using the SAME APP. This was nonsensical because in USA you need to iterate fast and launch things even faster. Piggybacking on Indian App which has like 300M monthly active users was a bit like you trying to take your 1996 camry and trying to make it an EV.
Well there was Inbox by Gmail at one point, and I feel there was something else that tried to be an alternative to gmail as well at one point. I'm waiting for YouTube to be split back into YouTube and Google Video, one going full in on TikTok/Shorts content and the other going back to long form content.
Google Wave is the other one you're trying to remember.
Google's lack of product sense is embedded in their culture. Consider that they consider this [1] a good interview question, then extrapolate that to the rest of their culture and you can see how we've ended up here.
[1]: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35545817
[1]: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35545817
Google interviews make a lot of sense if you imagine that on day one it was some CS students with no experience, and maybe a CS professor's influence... so they did what they thought was important.
Then people started training for the interviews.
Now people's egos are propped up on it, and they'd get upset that you were lowering the bar if you tried to change it.
Then people started training for the interviews.
Now people's egos are propped up on it, and they'd get upset that you were lowering the bar if you tried to change it.
Full circle, maybe. But at least a bunch of mid level product managers got promotions.
That title is very misleading, it ONLY impacts the US version
Wait a minute, I thought Google Pay was the android wallet for storing cards to make purchased via tapping your phone/watch.
This talks about having a balance, does Google Pay offer accounts in the US, or am I getting myself mixed up with another product?
[Edit] I don't think I'm getting mixed up.
https://pay.google.com/about/
> Google Pay is the fast, simple way to pay on sites, in apps, and in stores using the cards saved to your Google Account.
Google Wallet appears to expose Google Pay on Android devices, but is just an interface to Google Pay.
It used to be the Google Pay app but was rebranded as Google Wallet. And Google Pay app is something else?
This talks about having a balance, does Google Pay offer accounts in the US, or am I getting myself mixed up with another product?
[Edit] I don't think I'm getting mixed up.
https://pay.google.com/about/
> Google Pay is the fast, simple way to pay on sites, in apps, and in stores using the cards saved to your Google Account.
Google Wallet appears to expose Google Pay on Android devices, but is just an interface to Google Pay.
It used to be the Google Pay app but was rebranded as Google Wallet. And Google Pay app is something else?
There's the Google Pay service that processes payments.
There's the old Google Pay app that got rebranded as Google Wallet.
And then there's a newer Google Pay app available only in the US, Singapore, and India. This is the one getting shutdown.
See also: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_Pay
And a very helpful chart: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Googlepayments.svg
There's the old Google Pay app that got rebranded as Google Wallet.
And then there's a newer Google Pay app available only in the US, Singapore, and India. This is the one getting shutdown.
See also: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_Pay
And a very helpful chart: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Googlepayments.svg
Jesus Christ that chart. What is going on over at Google???
Payments are the new chat.
Once the Supreme Court ruled that money is speech, this was the next logical step.
A fat monopoly and a bunch of unaligned bullshit besides that.
Like its all middle management machiavellianism at this s point.
Like its all middle management machiavellianism at this s point.
That weird fork the second from the right was from when Google was aspiring to become a bank... or at least partner with one, to offer credit cards.
The far right branch is the "Next Billion Users" stream that launched Tez, which at the time was explicitly and solely for the Indian market, but since it was superior to the Google Wallet/Pay at the time, the VP lead decided to aim for global adoption, which was the previous Pay-->Wallet-->Pay nonsense a couple years ago. That has failed, so now everything is reverting back to the original/primary branch on the far left, which is and has always been, owned by the Android team.
The far right branch is the "Next Billion Users" stream that launched Tez, which at the time was explicitly and solely for the Indian market, but since it was superior to the Google Wallet/Pay at the time, the VP lead decided to aim for global adoption, which was the previous Pay-->Wallet-->Pay nonsense a couple years ago. That has failed, so now everything is reverting back to the original/primary branch on the far left, which is and has always been, owned by the Android team.
I think the wallet is Google Wallet. Very confusing, I know.
The notice on the Wikipedia article for "Google Wallet" is telling:
> This article is about the mobile app introduced in 2022. For the discontinued service of the same name, see Google Wallet (2011–2018).
> "Google Pay (2018–2022)" redirects here. For the 2020 app, see Google Pay (mobile app).
> This article is about the mobile app introduced in 2022. For the discontinued service of the same name, see Google Wallet (2011–2018).
> "Google Pay (2018–2022)" redirects here. For the 2020 app, see Google Pay (mobile app).
Yeah the split it up. I am pretty sure this is the Vemo like service of being able to send money to other people.
The banking system in the US is so messed up, and Venmo is so hostile.
Here in the UK I can just send people money immediately, and been able to do that for decades.
Here in the UK I can just send people money immediately, and been able to do that for decades.
Same here (Swish), we've got great authentication as well (BankID)
It's deliberately messed up in order to make more profit if you're a bank. UK has proper electronic funds transfer because the culture accepts government telling big business to do stuff for the public benefit. US political corruption and culture precludes that.
I think it's worse than that.
My bank offers a US routing and account number so that Americans can transfer money, since the banks over there struggle with international payments.
I then found out that my in-laws still can't transfer money because their bank has removed the ability to send money to another account that isn't via Venmo.
It's not "messed up" it's hostile.
My bank offers a US routing and account number so that Americans can transfer money, since the banks over there struggle with international payments.
I then found out that my in-laws still can't transfer money because their bank has removed the ability to send money to another account that isn't via Venmo.
It's not "messed up" it's hostile.
The US has that too, it's just decades late. FedNOW is being rolled out this year
Ah the old axiom that you only discover Google offers product X on the day they EOL it.
From their website in the UK
https://pay.google.com/about/
--------
Google Pay is the fast, simple way to pay on sites, in apps, and in stores using the cards saved to your Google Account.
:Add a card to Google Pay:
And download Google Wallet to pay with your Android device.
----
I think Google Wallet is just the Android app to use Google Pay and you use it to save cards *to* Google Pay. They even have a link to "Add a card to Google Pay". Pretty sure a couple of years ago Google Wallet was called Google Pay, but they renamed it. Presumably for whatever service Google Pay App is.
Really confusing. Classic Google.
https://pay.google.com/about/
--------
Google Pay is the fast, simple way to pay on sites, in apps, and in stores using the cards saved to your Google Account.
:Add a card to Google Pay:
And download Google Wallet to pay with your Android device.
----
I think Google Wallet is just the Android app to use Google Pay and you use it to save cards *to* Google Pay. They even have a link to "Add a card to Google Pay". Pretty sure a couple of years ago Google Wallet was called Google Pay, but they renamed it. Presumably for whatever service Google Pay App is.
Really confusing. Classic Google.
Why all renaming when all apps do the same thing? I don't get it, why they just don't silently push the updated terms/changes and just leave the old name as is?
Oh, the irony, so one of the flagship Flutter app rewrites is now gone?
Gone for USA but continues for India where it is widely successful despite being a super low and less performant app.
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I swear they have gone back and forth on Android Pay/Google Wallet/Google Pay a half dozen times.