Google Wallet shortcut on Pixel 7 now opens the full app [U]

Abner Li | Dec 13 2022 - 4:22 pm PT

As detailed in October, Google has changed the wallet shortcuts on the Pixel 7 and 7 Pro to directly open the app.

When tapping the wallet shortcut at the bottom-right corner of the lockscreen, the full Google Wallet app now opens. This also applies to the “Wallet” Quick Settings tile, which was not previously mentioned by Google in the release notes for the October 2022 Play System updates.

Previously, there was an intermediary UI that showed a carousel of cards, which you could swipe through to select a payment method. That UI dates back to Android 11’s Cards & Passes that was originally accessed by long-pressing the power button.

Update: On non-Pixel 7 devices, the Cards & Passes UI remains.

This change is presumably due to the Pixel 7 and 7 Pro declining Google Pay transactions if you unlocked via face unlock instead of fingerprint or passcode. This was a problem at the start as this failure was not accompanied by any warning prompts. Behind-the-scenes, this is due to the Pixel 7 face unlock not offering the highest level of authentication needed for something as sensitive as payments.

Once the update is rolled out, accessing the Wallet widget on your lock screen will open the full Google Wallet app, presumably ensuring that you’re fully authenticated to access your contactless payments.

Previous behavior

We haven’t been able to make a tap-to-pay transaction to test the new behavior. In terms of speed, the Google Wallet “app,” which is really just an experience powered by Play services, takes slightly longer to load than the old Cards & Passes interface.

Update: Google Wallet Quick Settings tile stops showing full card name

Meanwhile, Google has made another change to the Wallet experience that’s quite annoying. The Wallet Quick Settings tile now shows the full card name instead of just the last four digits. And yes, that full card name will scroll (once) to completion before the digits appear at the very end.

This occurs every time you open Quick Settings. In my case, my card name starts with the bank and has three more words. This is quite annoying and hopefully will be reversed in a future update.

We’re seeing these new Google Wallet behaviors with version 22.48.14 of Google Play services on a Pixel 7 running the December’s QPR1 stable build. However, the two changes might not be widely rolled out yet and haven’t appeared on other devices we checked today.