Google Pay adds support for contactless payments on Wear OS watches in 16 more countries
Owners of a smartwatch running Google’s Wear OS operating system will soon be able to use it to make contactless payments using Google Pay in 16 additional countries. google pay support
Google Pay is adding support for contactless payments on Wear OS watches in Belgium, Brazil, Chile, Croatia, Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, Hong Kong, Ireland, New Zealand, Norway, Slovakia, Sweden, Taiwan, Ukraine and the United Arab Emirates and says that there will be “more to come”.
The service will be rolled out in these countries on the new Samsung Galaxy Watch 4 and as part of Google’s Wear OS 3 update as well as “in the coming weeks for current smartwatches running Wear OS 2”, Google says.
“You’ll also see the app’s revamped design so credit cards stored in your wallet are larger and easier to swipe through,” the company adds.
To date, Google Pay has been enabled on Wear OS watches in 11 countries, including Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Poland, Russia, Spain, Switzerland, the UK and the US.
To use Google Pay on your Galaxy Watch4, download the app in Google Play on your smartwatch. Once Google Pay is added to your smartwatch, you’ll be able to see it alongside your other apps.
Apple Pay used for more than 90% of US mobile wallet debit transactions in 2020 google pay support
The number of debit transactions completed using a mobile wallet in the US rose by 51% year-on-year to approximately 2bn in 2020, with “a noteworthy” 92% of those transactions being made with Apple Pay and just 5% with Google Pay and 3% with Samsung Pay, according to research published in the 2021 Debit Issuer Study.
The research also shows that “the rollout of contactless debit cards is well underway” in the US, “with contactless penetration jumping from 11% of all debit cards in 2019 to 30% in 2020”, and forecasts that nearly two-thirds (64%) of US debit cards will be contactless by the end of 2021.
However, the research adds, “while the number of contactless debit card transactions at tap-and-go terminals increased six-fold year-over-year in 2020, such transactions still make up less than 2% of all debit transactions.”
The US findings come as a report by VoucherCodes.co.uk and the Centre for Retail Research predicts that contactless payments will account for 47% of all retail purchases made in the UK by the end of 2022, making it the country’s most popular method for making retail payments.
