When Google Wallet launched in 2022, Google kept the “GPay” app around in a handful of countries. The company announced today that the old Google Pay app is soon going away in the US.
That app, which appears as “GPay” on your Android homescreen, was Google’s previous vision for mobile payments and finance. It was “designed around your relationships with people and businesses” with conversation-like threads serving as a purchase history, while keeping track of your spending was another big aspect.
GPay will stop working in the US from June 4, 2024. It will remain available for users in India and Singapore as Google continues to “build for the unique needs in those countries.”
As part of the app going away, Google is shutting down peer-to-peer payments that let you send, request, or receive money from others in the US. Google’s P2P offering never really took off.
You will have to use the Google Pay website to view and transfer your Google Pay balance — of money you’ve received from other people or rewards/cash back — to a bank account after June.
Finding deals and offers was a part of the GPay experience and Google is now directing people to Search for that. However, there won’t be any integrated cash back experiences like before.
Top comment by Warren Skipper
Google loves to make things more complicated than they need to be. Having two separate apps with slightly different functions was never going to catch on. I was always afraid to uninstall Google Pay for fear it would break something in Google Wallet. Now I can put that concern at ease.
Google is offering no replacement for the “Insights” tab that lets you link (via Plaid) a bank account or credit card to see all transactions and balances in the app. The Pay website only offers a simple transaction history, with Google telling us that it “[doesn’t] have plans to bring additional insights to the web” at this time. Users also enjoyed the search capabilities that GPay offered.
Google Wallet is what the company wants people to use. It’s meant to replace your physical wallet and even car keys by supporting transit cards, driver’s licenses, state IDs, and other passes. In fact, Google notes how Wallet is “used five times more than the Google Pay app in the U.S.”
L-R: GPay, Google Pay, Google Wallet
Google Pay remains the name of what you actually do during a physical or online transaction and was already handled by Google Wallet.
We want to help make this transition as smooth as possible. Anywhere you normally use Google Pay — from checking out online to tapping and paying in stores — remains the same.
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