Google Wallet is one of those apps that many of us use every day. It’s so simple to set up that once you’ve added your payment card, you might never look at it again. Yet it has got several extra features that are incredibly helpful, but which you might never find if you don’t know where to look. Here are the ones I find most useful.
Quick access shortcuts
Open your phone straight into the app
Google Wallet is an app that you need to access quickly whenever you use it. You don’t want to be swiping through home screen panels or digging through your app drawer to find it. Depending on what phone you’re using, Google Wallet has at least one, and potentially two or three, shortcuts that you can set up for easy access.
On my Pixel, I’ve added an icon on the lock screen. I did that by opening the lock screen settings and selecting Wallet under the Shortcuts menu. You can also add a Wallet option to your Quick Settings panel. And, on some phones, you can set the power or other side button to activate Wallet after a double-tap or long-press.
Location-based notifications
Get alerts when you can use loyalty cards
I usually disable notifications and the location permission on pretty much all my apps, unless I know there’s a good reason to leave them enabled. There is a good reason with Google Wallet—it uses your location to alert you when you’re in or near a place that you’ve got a loyalty card set up. It makes it easier to access, and also ensures you won’t forget that you’ve got it.
You can set it up just by enabling the precise location and notifications options. Once you’ve done that, you can also open a card in Wallet, tap the settings button, and select Nearby Locations to see places where you can use the card, shown in Google Maps. It’s ideal for things like gas stations when you’re on the road.
It supports unsupported cards
Add any QR code or barcode to your wallet
Google Wallet is most commonly used to pay for things, followed by holding your loyalty cards, transit passes, and things like that. But you aren’t just limited to using these preset options. Tap the + button in the app, and you’ll see an option labeled Everything Else.
You can’t add literally everything here, but if you’ve got any kind of ticket or pass that has a QR code or barcode on it, then scanning it will turn it into a digital version.
You can use multiple accounts
Keep your personal and work lives separate
It’s obvious, but I’d never considered until recently that you can use multiple accounts within Google Wallet, just as you can within all the other Google apps on your phone.
In most cases, you’ll only ever need to add your payment cards or other items to your main Google account. But if you’ve got, for example, another Google account for work, you can add a separate payment card, an ID card, a parking pass, or any other relevant documents to that instead.
Not only would it avoid you mixing up your payment methods, but it helps to keep your personal and work lives separate, and avoid clutter in the app, too.
It finds passes and tickets from Gmail
Link Wallet with your email app
It’s easy to add cards and passes to Google Wallet. In most cases, you simply have to photograph them and the app will autodetect all the relevant details that it needs. In some cases, it can automatically add things for you. Boarding passes, event tickets, and the like that you receive in Gmail can show up in Wallet so that you’ve got them to hand whenever you need them.
You have to enable this option in order to use it. In Wallet, tap your account avatar in the top right corner and select Settings. Now tap Add passes from Gmail and make sure you’ve enabled Smart features in your Google account.
You can use public transport without verifying
Pay to travel without unlocking your phone
When you use Google Wallet on the subway or bus during rush hour, you don’t want to have to mess around with your phone when you’re trying to pay. You just want to tap and go.
Fortunately, you can do this by disabling verification when using public transport. Once you’ve added a card or pass for transit payments, tap your account avatar and go to Settings > Verification settings > Public transport payments. You can now toggle off the Verification required option. Next time you travel, you won’t need to use your fingerprint or other method to confirm your payment.
Unlock these useful features in Google Wallet
Simplicity is at the heart of Google Wallet. It isn’t complicated to set up and use. The downside to this is that some of its more useful features are tucked away, and you might never even know that they exist, let alone how to activate and use them. None of the six features we’ve looked at here are immediately obvious when you launch the app, yet they’re all worth using now that you know about them.
Stephan is the sports journalist for the Maple Grove Report.
