Another app joins Google's graveyard: Google Pay shutting down in June

Another app joins Google’s graveyard: Google Pay shutting down in June،

Google has a long history of removing and rebranding services, and its payment offerings are no exception. In an effort to simplify the company's product line, Google has announcement that it will remove the dedicated Google Pay application in the United States at the beginning of the summer.

Google launched the dedicated Google Pay app in 2018, replacing Android Pay and reinventing itself as a unified payment service where you can see your recent purchases, find nearby stores, access rewards, make peer-to-peer payments -peer and store a variety of payment and loyalty cards. This app was later split into Google Pay (for rewards and peer-to-peer transactions) and Google Wallet (for storing payment cards and passes).

Now Google appears to be reversing the trend by combining them again – to a certain extent. The Google Pay (GPay) app will be shut down in the United States starting June 4, 2024. This change reinforces the repositioning of Google Wallet as the primary payment option for US users. while Google Pay will still be available in limited markets like India, where Google Wallet remains unavailable.

What this means for you

Google wants to make this transition as smooth as possible. That's why it has started informing its Google Pay users that they can still view and transfer any remaining balance from the app to their bank account until the shutdown date. After this date, users will still be able to access their funds using the web version of Google Pay.

Google Wallet will remain users' primary option for mobile payments in the United States. Storing credit/debit cards for contactless payment, managing loyalty programs, passes, tickets, digital car keys and government IDs (if supported) will continue to be supported. be managed via the Google Wallet application which can be downloaded from Google Play.

However, peer-to-peer payments appear to be a feature that will no longer be supported at all after June 4. Unlike the other previously mentioned features, Google makes no mention of a transition plan and has not announced plans to bring this feature to Google Wallet.

Google says the Google Wallet app is used more often than the Google Pay app in the United States. Given this statistic, it makes sense that the company made this move to streamline payment services. Additionally, having Google Pay as a separate app was confusing for many users who didn't know why two different (but similar) apps existed for payments. Hopefully this change can alleviate this problem.