Google Wallet app with support for passes, tickets launched in India; to work together with Google Pay

Google Wallet was launched by the company in India on Wednesday. The app is designed to store boarding passes, loyalty and gift cards, event passes, car keys and transit tickets. The app can also digitize certain physical documents and store them for easy access. While the company previously merged its payment and wallet apps in other markets, it confirmed that the Google Wallet app will co-exist with the Google Pay app in India, which will continue to process payments through NPCI’s UPI network and supported bank cards.

At a launch event on Wednesday, the company announced that the Google Wallet app will be available for download on Android smartphones through the Google Play store in India. The app was spotted on the Play Store last month, along with screenshots that hinted at support for various features in India, such as storing and displaying flight tickets, loyalty cards, event tickets and travel cards.

Google says it has partnered with over 20 companies in India, including PVR, Inox, Air India, Indigo, Flipkart, MakeMyTrip, Easemytrip, Ixigo and Pine Labs. The company will also add support for more companies in the coming months.

According to the company, users will be able to add movie and event tickets from PVR and Inox to Google Wallet. Meanwhile, mobile boarding passes can also be added to Google Wallet for easy access – the app currently supports Air India and Air India Express flights through companies like MakeMyTrip, Easemytrip and Ixigo. Users will also have access to transit cards for services like Kochi Metro, Hyderabad Metro, VRL Travels and Abhibus through the app.

The Google Wallet app will also allow Indian users to scan physical documents such as luggage tags, parking receipts and printed airline boarding passes using a QR code or barcode. Corporate badges can also be added to Google Wallet as the company partners with integrators such as Wavelynx and Alert Enterprise.

If users have smart customization settings enabled in Gmail, the Google Wallet app will automatically retrieve and display IPL, movie and train tickets using the event confirmation sent to the user, according to the company. The Google Wallet app will also allow users to access digital versions of their loyalty cards for Flipkart, Dominos and Shoppers Stop.

It’s worth noting that unlike global markets where the company has merged its payments apps, the Google Wallet and Google Pay apps will continue to work independently of each other in India. While the Google Wallet app will offer access to all the features mentioned above, access to UPI payments and contactless payments (pay by touch) using supported bank cards will be available through Google Pay in India.