Google Wallet launched in India – store your loyalty cards, boarding passes and more

• Google announced the launch of the Google Wallet app in India on Wednesday.
• Google Wallet is a digital wallet platform that allows users to store their loyalty cards, gift cards, boarding passes and more.
• Here’s everything you need to know about the Google Wallet.

The Google Wallet has finally been launched in India, after being spotted on the Play Store a few weeks ago. While Google had then dismissed speculation around the launch of the app in India, it has now officially launched the app.

For those unaware, Google Wallet is a digital wallet platform that allows users to store their loyalty cards, gift cards, boarding passes and more.

Google has partnered with over 20 brands in India and has said that other brands will be added in the coming months.

What is Google Wallet?

The Google Wallet was first launched in 2011 in the US as a payment app and was relaunched as a digital wallet app in 2022. With Google Wallet, you can store digital versions of your transit passes, office badges, vaccine records, car keys, boarding passes, and even student IDs.

Now, nearly two years later, the app has made its way to India, albeit with some changes. While the app in the US allows users to add their debit and credit cards, Indian users will not be able to do so.

Google Wallet for India

To cater to India, Google has partnered with over 20 of the country’s leading brands, including PVR & Inox, Air India, Indigo, Flipkart, AbhiBus, Kochi Metro and more.

For India, the Google Wallet app will only work as a digital wallet and users will not be able to add their debit or credit cards. For this purpose, Indian users can continue to use the Google Pay app.

"The arrival of Google Wallet in India marks an important milestone in Android's India journey, bringing innovative and convenient experiences to simplify peoples' daily lives. We are delighted to partner with many of India's top brands to offer a comprehensive solution that helps you securely access and manage your everyday essentials. From boarding passes to loyalty cards, and event tickets to public transport passes - they're there when you need them,” said Ram Papatla, GM and India Engineering Lead, Android at Google.

Google Pay to continue

In February 2024, Google announced that it would replace the Google Pay app with the Google Wallet in the US.

While Google has now launched the Google Wallet in India, the Google Pay app will continue to work as usual in the country. The Google Pay app already has a huge user base in the country, alongside PhonePe. As per NPCI data, over 5 billion transactions were done on Google Pay in April 2024.

"Google Pay is not going anywhere. It will remain our primary payment app. Google Wallet is specifically tailored for non-payment use cases," Papatla added.

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