Google Wallet Now Supports All Major Credit Cards, Moves to Cloud
|
Yesterday (August 1), Google released a new version of Google Wallet, the payment application that turns mobile phones and tablets into wallets.
Included in the update is added support for all major credit-card types, including Visa, MasterCard, American Express and Discover.
Changes also include moving credit- and debit-card information into the cloud and the ability to remotely disable the Google Wallet app though Google's website.
Google Wallet growth will no longer be hampered by a lack of universal credit-card support, which previously limited users' payment options when they used Google Wallet.
Unfortunately, device support is still limited: There are currently only six phones, mostly on carriers Sprint and Virgin Mobile, as well as the new Nexus 7 tablet, that currently support Google Wallet. (AT&T, T-Mobile and Verizon Wireless are developing a competitor to Google Wallet called Isis and do not include Google Wallet on their branded Android phones.)
In previous versions of Google Wallet, credit-card information was securely stored on each individual user's device, but today's changes move this information to Google's secure servers. This will allow users to enter their credit cards once and sync their payment information to each of their devices.
Since payment information is no longer stored on each physical device, users can log on to the official Google Wallet and disable any lost or stolen device.
The new version of Google Wallet is available now on Google Play. Google Wallet requires a supported NFC device, such as the Samsung Galaxy Nexus, Galaxy S3 or the Nexus 7, and is currently only available in the United States.
