Today at CES, Google announced that they are merging Android Pay and Google Wallet into a new app & service, Google Pay. Google Pay will be the one-stop solution for making purchases online, at retailers, and through in-app purchases such as those found in Airbnb and Fandango.
The new solution has been in the works for the past year according to the Mountain View company and it will not only allow for you to make purchases but to also send funds to friends & family. That’s the Google Wallet part of the equation for those who don’t recall.
As you would expect with a rebranding and merging of apps, it is going to be a few weeks – if not a few months – before it start rolling out in mass. Apps will have to be updated by Google, developers will need to update their apps and end terminals for payment will need to be updated (logo wise). In other words, don’t expect to download the new Google Pay app today. Android Pay will continue to be the app for now.
The move is a good one for Google as it moves Android Pay being virtually tied to one platform. Since information from your Google account is used for payment information, things like auto insertion of payment information in a Chrome browser will now fall under the new moniker. Google Pay, from a holistic perspective, makes more sense.
