Google is killing off Google Pay in the US

Google recently decided that Google Pay, its long-running payment app, will stop operating in the United States as of June 4. Instead, users will have to switch to Google Wallet, its other payment app that allows users to connect their cards to their mobile devices.

Google Pay will be discontinued in early June

According to Google, the standalone Google Pay app will disappear on June 4, in order to simplify the app experience, as the company’s statement reads.

Americans will still be able to use some of the same features that they had access to in Google Pay, such as being able to pay by tapping in stores, managing their payment methods, and alike. However, P2P payments are not a part of the Wallet app, and they will not be available.

Google Wallet is the company’s original payment app, and it emerged more than a decade ago now. Then, in 2015, Google made a decision to rebrand it into Android Pay. However, only three years later, the firm decided to rebrand again, this time into Google Pay, which happened in 2018.

After that, Wallet returned in 2022, and in most countries, it simply replaced Google Pay. However, in the US, the company decided to keep Google Pay as well, running both apps side-by-side.

However, with Wallet being used almost five times more than Google Pay itself, the firm made a decision to make the same move in the US as well. This is why Google Pay will soon be removed from the stores, and discontinued. While this is an inconvenience for those who still use Google Pay, the company has opted to run only one app, and Wallet’s much greater popularity led it to pick this one as the app to keep.

Differences between Google Pay and Google Wallet

Google’s Product Manager, Joris van Mens, commented on the decision, stating that Google Wallet continues to be the primary place for people to securely store payment cards used for tap-and-pay in stores. “To simplify the app experience, the U.S. version of the standalone Google Pay app will no longer be available for use starting June 4, 2024,” he said.

Apart from not offering P2P services, Google Wallet also doesn’t provide cashback on purchases, unlike Google Pay. However, it is still a versatile payment wallet that stores online payment methods, as well as a range of other digital items, including driver’s licenses, keys, and state IDs. This was never a part of Google Pay, so those who will now start using Google Wallet for the first time might find these additional options interesting.

Furthermore, Google said that it is committed to improving the Wallet app further, although it never specified in what way, or whether Google Pay features might appear in Google Wallet after Google Pay gets officially retired.

One thing that is certain is that users will have until June 4 to shift to Google Wallet, which means transferring their balances out of the app before the deadline.