Back in October, Google Pay canceled its plans for “Plex” bank accounts with an accompanying card. In an interview today, Google shared that Pay will now focus on becoming a “comprehensive digital wallet.”
Bloomberg says that Google now wants to “become the connective tissue for the entire consumer finance industry.” This will involve various partnerships, including with Coinbase and BitPay to “store crypto assets in digital cards.” You can already add a Coinbase card to Google Pay.
The company did not announce any plans to accept crypto for transactions that use Google Pay (often found on websites and mobile apps), but does leave that on the table in the future:
“Crypto is something we pay a lot of attention to,” he said. “As user demand and merchant demand evolves, we’ll evolve with it.”
Bill Ready, the company’s president of commerce, acknowledged the failure of the company’s previous “Plex” vision and that Google has “no intention of being a bank.”
Meanwhile, digital tickets, airline passes, and vaccine passports were cited as examples of something that the “comprehensive” Google Pay will offer. Of course, all those things already appear in the app today, but hopefully they will be easier to access. Additionally, as a reminder, “Google Wallet” was what preceded “Google Pay.”
Elsewhere, Google Search and Shopping will get additional (unspecified) payment features, while loyalty cards and personal discounts will be surfaced in search results.
More on Google Pay:
- Everything you need to know to use Google Pay
- You can get free cashback and rewards with these Google Pay promotions
- How to use Google Pay with your Galaxy Watch 4
- Google, the search company, finally adds a search bar to Google Pay’s rewards tab
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