Earlier this week, the Google OS blog noticed that if you navigate to Google Wallet’s website, you’ll see that the service’s branding has been replaced by Google Payments. This led many to wonder if Google Wallet was being replaced by Google Payments, and since we knew that wasn’t true, we reached out to Google for clarification.
In short, Google Payments will be the company’s backend payments platform that supports all of its payments-related products. That includes the company’s two consumer-facing brands: Android Pay for in-app and in-store payments, and Google Wallet for peer-to-peer payments.
“As we prepare for the launch of our new payments products, we’re gradually updating the web destination where people can keep track of payments connected to their Google account, such as Play, Google Express, Google Fiber,” a Google spokesperson told VentureBeat. “These will now be available at payments.google.com.”
Right now, whether you head to wallet.google.com or payments.google.com you’ll see the same page (pictured below). The Google Payments site used to redirect to the Google Wallet site, but now it appears the opposite is more likely.
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Google Payments shows all transactions made with your Google account, and the main page also shows items that need your attention (like expired cards). You can add or change payment methods, manage your bills, and keep track of your shipping addresses in your address book. If you use Google Wallet, you’ll still see references to your Wallet Card and Wallet Balance.
The Google Wallet Privacy Notice now shows the following message:
The Services offered by Google Payments are covered by the Google Wallet Privacy Notice. The Google Wallet Privacy Notice will be updated effective June 30, 2015. You can view the updated notice at the link found here.
Indeed, that link takes you to the Google Payments Privacy Notice, which is dated next Tuesday. As the Google spokesperson told us, this is a gradual update.
Nevertheless, the change is already showing up in other products that leverage your Google account. Just yesterday, developer and Google open-source Chromium evangelist François Beaufort spotted a Chromium Code Review describing Google Payments integration with Chrome’s Autofill feature.
If you are signed into Chrome with your Google account, you can tap into your financial information by simply checking the new “Show addresses and credit cards from Google Payments” checkbox under chrome://settings/autofill. From that point on, you can autofill your web checkout forms with addresses and payment information from Google Payments using Chrome for Windows, Mac, Linux, and Android.
In short, whether you end up using the new Android Pay app, the new Google Wallet app, or really anything that requires paying through Google, you can expect Google Payments to the payments login system. If you want to keep track of all your financial information across all Google properties, you’ll head to payments.google.com.
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