Edgar Cervantes / Android Authority
TL;DR
- Google is pushing out a new Quick Settings tile for Google Wallet as part of the latest Play Services update.
- This tile should be more widely available than the current Quick Access Wallet tile.
We first discovered evidence last month that Google was working on a new Quick Settings tile for Google Wallet. We didn’t have to wait long, as the search giant has just announced that this feature is now available.
Google confirmed that the new Quick Settings Wallet tile is available in the latest Google Play Services update (version 24.33). It’s worth noting that Android devices already offer a Quick Settings tile for Wallet, so what’s happening here?
Since Android 12, Android phones have offered a Quick Settings tile for Google Wallet (known as Quick Access Wallet). However, this is a system-level feature that manufacturers can choose to drop. Meanwhile, the new Quick Settings Wallet tile is independent of the previous solution. This new tile suggests that people can still get quick access to Wallet if manufacturers block the previous solution or if their phones are running an older version of Android that doesn’t support the old tile.
The Play Services update also brings two more changes. The first change introduces “more functionality for transit cards in Wallet.” We’re not sure about the specific functionality added here, but we recently discovered evidence that Wallet will let you assign nicknames to transit cards.
The update also brings digital car key support on Wear OS. This isn’t a surprising addition as the Pixel Watch 3 indeed offers digital car key support.