Google Wallet upgrades are now available for Wear OS, Web and Android

• Wear OS upgrades improve pass management and make it easier to access and organize different types of passes.

• Google Wallet is expanding globally, with the addition of 10 more countries for the Android app and 28 more for the web version.

• Integration with Gmail has been improved to automatically add train tickets received in confirmation emails to Google Wallet and add movie tickets.

Google Wallet just got a huge boost with a series of updates that make it accessible across platforms. A digital update makes Wallet the perfect place for cards, passports, keys and ID cards Wear an operating system the web and Android. Pockets will soon be obsolete.

Wear OS significantly improves pass handling thanks to new pass groups (via 9to5Google). There is no need to scroll through a long list of different passes. Movie tickets, train tickets and boarding passes are all grouped together. You can search each passport group as a carousel and clean up your wallet with passport archiving. There is even a “unscanned passports” section, although Google doesn’t provide much information on this.

A new wallet website for more people

The wallet website is also being expanded and is now available in 43 countries. The site only launched in 15 countries earlier this year, so that’s a significant boost. The website allows you to organize your payment cards, passes and loyalty cards via a Chrome browser and pay conveniently online. Google assures everyone who hasn’t yet received the web version that “this is just Phase 1” of a plan to be put in place wallet.google.com available worldwide.

The same goes for the Google Wallet app for Android, which is available in ten additional countries, including Bermuda, Nicaragua, Panama and Paraguay. The app is already available in over a hundred countries, so it’s nice to see more coming.

Gmail and Wallet are now better integrated

As if that wasn’t enough, this major update also adds superpowers to Gmail. Now, when you receive a train ticket confirmation email in Gmail, it will automatically appear in your Google Wallet. Add to that movie tickets and loyalty cards, which already do this. Life really does get easier.

Finally, the latest updates include improvements to the closed-loop transit API for developers. This means it’s easier to convert physical transit cards into digital cards for Google Wallet. The upgrade also updates security with the VDV eTicket Services Motics specification, which protects digital tickets from copying and counterfeiting.

Wallet is really becoming a powerful app. Advanced Wear OS, Android and web features make it better than everyone else, at least for now.

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