Google Wallet Aims to Replace Your Real Wallet

Paying through your cellphone using NFC (Near Field Communication) or a similar technology hasn’t picked up yet in the West like it has in the technologically advanced economies of the east like Japan. Google Wallet is a new Google service that’s a step in this direction. It aims to replace your real wallet by helping you pay for goods using your Android phone, and eventually any smartphone.

Google Wallet is basically an Android app at the moment that has been launched on Sprint Nexus S 4G phones in the US. Currently, it only works with Citi Mastercard but there’s the Google Prepaid Mastercard that you could preload money into from other credit cards and use it.

How Google Wallet Works

Each of the NFC-enabled Sprint phones have a chip inside them that can securely communicate with MasterCard’s PayPass terminals at a close distance and recognize transactions. So it’s just a tap and voila, payment made!

You need to look for the following symbols when trying to use your Google Wallet because that’s where it will work.

The following image shows some of the merchants that have PayPass enabled machines and hence you can use your Google Wallet to tap and pay them.

A good thing about Google Wallet is that discounts and credits from Google Offers automatically sync with it thereby saving you money now and then.

This is still in its introductory phase and in the months ahead you should expect much more from this useful app and the amazing technology that makes it possible. The developers hinted in the demo video that eventually Google Wallet could be a repository for things like boarding tickets. You get the picture.