Why are we seeing the name Google Pay everywhere even though the app isn’t available in our country? Let’s try to go through Google Pay’s puzzling naming scheme over the year and clear our misconceptions.

Google Checkout

Google first entered the online payment sphere with Google Checkout, which was launched on June 28, 2006.1 It was an online payment processing service that worked exclusively for websites.

Android Pay

Later, on September 19, 2011, they released an Android app called Google Wallet, which integrated the functionalities of Google Checkout with NFC for mobile payments.2 Initially, it only supported Citibank’s Mastercards within the US and even had an optional physical card that could be used as a general-purpose debit card.3

Google Wallet

In 2015, Google revamped its payment strategy. It introduced Android Pay on September 10, 2015, to serve as a direct competitor to Apple Pay, focusing on NFC payments, card storage, and loyalty programs.4 This move was done by Google’s acquisition of a company called Softcard.5 The original Google Wallet became a peer-to-peer (P2P) transaction app dropping its NFC support.

At this point, the roles were clear:

  • Android Pay was used for NFC (tap-to-pay) transactions and was exclusive to Android devices.
  • Google Wallet was used for sending and receiving money (only in US) and was available on both Android and iOS.

Tez

On September 18, 2017, Google launched a new mobile payment service called Tez, exclusively for India. This service was built on India’s Unified Payment Interface (UPI) and was available for both Android and iOS devices.6

Google Pay

On January 8, 2018 Google announced that Android Pay and Google Wallet would merge into a single, unified brand: Google Pay.7 For a transitional period, the P2P functions of the old Google Wallet were transferred into a separate app called Google Pay Send. In August of the same year, Tez was also rebranded as Google Pay for the Indian market, keeping its UPI foundation but adopting the Google Pay name.8

At this stage:

  • Google Pay handled NFC payments, P2P money transfers (only in US), and card storage.
  • Google Pay Send existed temporarily for P2P transactions.
  • Google Pay (for India) offered similar services, with P2P payments powered by UPI.

The Google Pay brand was also introduced in Singapore in September 2020, with a refreshed app that supported the local payment ecosystem.9

Google Wallet

In July 2022, Google initiated another major rebranding. The primary Google Pay app was renamed Google Wallet in most countries.10 This new Google Wallet app was designed to be a new portal for payment cards, loyalty passes, and digital tickets. The name of the app in India and Singapore, however, remained Google Pay due to their unique, country-specific payment systems.11

Therefore, the current situation is:

  • Google Pay is the name of Google’s overall payment system and technology.
  • Google Wallet is the primary app in most countries for Android devices, providing access to the Google Pay system for tap-to-pay and pass storage, no longer has P2P in US.
  • The standalone Google Pay app continues to exist only in India and Singapore with P2P, tailored to their respective unified payment protocols.

  1. Gina Cher-A-Kang, “Checking Out,” Google Official Blog, June 28, 2006, https://googleblog.blogspot.com/2006/06/checking-out.html. ↩︎

  2. Osama Bedier, “Tapping into the Future with Google Wallet,” Google Official Blog, May 26, 2011, https://googleblog.blogspot.com/2011/05/tapping-into-future-with-google-wallet.html. ↩︎

  3. Jason Del Rey, “Google Overhauls Wallet, but It Still Won’t Kill Your Credit Card,” Recode, September 9, 2015, https://www.vox.com/2015/9/9/11619894/google-overhauls-wallet-but-it-still-wont-kill-your-credit-card. ↩︎

  4. Pali Bhat, “Tap. Pay. Next. With Android Pay,” Google Official Blog, September 10, 2015, https://blog.google/products/android/tap-pay-next/. ↩︎

  5. Dieter Bohn, “Google Acquires ‘Substantially All’ of Softcard’s Technology to Power a New Google Wallet,” The Verge, February 23, 2015, https://www.theverge.com/2015/2/23/8092231/google-acquires-softcard-google-wallet-tap-to-pay-android. ↩︎

  6. Diana S. Sinton, “Introducing Tez—A New Mobile Payments App from Google, Made for India First,” Google Blog India, September 18, 2017, https://blog.google/intl/en-in/products/search/introducing-tez-new-mobile-payments-app-google-made-india-first/. ↩︎

  7. Pali Bhat, “Bringing It All Together with Google Pay,” Google Official Blog, January 8, 2018, https://blog.google/products/shopping/bringing-it-all-together-google-pay/. ↩︎

  8. Caesar Sengupta, “Google Pay—The New Payments App from Google,” Google Blog India, August 28, 2018, https://blog.google/intl/en-in/products/search/google-pay-new-payments-app-google/. ↩︎

  9. Patrick Teo, “A Refreshed Google Pay Launches in Singapore,” Google Blog Singapore, September 23, 2020, https://blog.google/intl/en-sg/products/google-pay/refreshed-google-pay-launches-singapore/. ↩︎

  10. Dong Min Kim, “Make Room in Your Digital Wallet for More,” Google Official Blog, July 18, 2022, https://blog.google/products/wallet/more-than-a-payment-app/. ↩︎

  11. Abner Li, “Google Wallet Starts Rolling Out in 39 Countries,” 9to5Google, July 20, 2022, https://9to5google.com/2022/07/20/google-wallet-rollout/. ↩︎