Google Wallet Expands To More Countries, Adds Support For Some Fitbit Devices

Google has had an eventful and confusing history with digital wallets and contactless payment apps. The company entered the world of contactless payments more than a decade ago — in 2011 — with the original Google Wallet app. Four years later, the company discontinued Google Wallet in favor of a new payment system called Android Pay. In 2017, Google launched another digital payment app called Google Tez in India, built around the country's revolutionary instant payments system UPI (Unified Payments Interface) — even as the rest of the world continued to use Android Pay. In 2018, Google rebranded Google Tez to Google Pay in India. Something similar happened in the U.S. and the rest of the world, where the company rebranded Android Pay to Google Pay.

For over four years, Google had two separate versions of the Google Pay app available for download. While the Google Tez-based Google Play app served as an India-exclusive product, there was another Google Pay app for the U.S. and the rest of the world. Google maintained this status quo until 2022, after which the company decided it was about time its payments ecosystem underwent an overhaul. At Google I/O 2022, Google brought the original Google Wallet brand name back from the dead. To do this, the company rolled out a series of features to the international Google Pay app and rebranded it as Google Wallet.

Earlier this year, this rebranded version of Google Wallet rolled out to users across 45 countries across the globe — including the U.S. On November 15, 2022, Google revealed that it has expanded the global footprint of Google Wallet to 12 more countries, while also adding support for new wearable devices.

In a blog post by Jenny Cheng — the VP and GM at Google Wallet — the company confirmed that the revamped Google Wallet app is now functional in 12 more countries. The new countries in this list include Armenia, Cyprus, Georgia, Kyrgyzstan, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, Malaysia, Malta, Mexico, Slovenia, Thailand, and Vietnam. With these countries added, the availability of Google Wallet has expanded to 57 countries.

In addition to these new countries, the company also announced that it has rolled out an update to let users make contactless Google Wallet payments using the Fitbit Sense 2 and the Fitbit Versa 4 smartwatches. Google had already rolled out the same feature to the Pixel Watch less than a month ago.

Besides making peer-to-peer payments, Google Wallet lets users make tap-and-pay payments on public transportation systems in hundreds of cities. Google has also tied up with major ticketing companies like Ticketmaster, Thaiticketmajor in Thailand, Cinemaxx in Germany, and Ticketek, Humanitix, and Oztix in Australia, due to which users can save their mobile tickets right within the Google Wallet app.

Thanks to Google's partnerships with major airlines, including AirAsia, Air France, China Air, Ryanair, and United Airlines, Google Wallet users can now access their boarding passes right within the Google Wallet app. In addition, the app supports multiple boarding passes, making the feature useful when traveling with family and friends.