- The latest Google Play Services update brings four upgrades to Google Wallet
- The biggest of these is the ability to scan and store receipts
- It also adds an in-app message center, improved merchant names, and a smoother payment process
If you have an Android phone then you’re probably already using Google Wallet, and with the latest Google Play Services update it’s getting slightly better in four ways.
As spotted by Android Police, the October Google Play Services update (v26.40) is rolling out now, and it — among other things — brings the ability to scan receipts into Google Wallet, so you’ll be able to save and view them in the wallet interface.
Additionally, this update improves merchant names in transaction notifications. Google hasn’t specified how they’re improved, but presumably this is aimed at providing more clarity about who or what you’ve sent money to.
More messages and fewer payment screens
The update also adds an in-app message center to Google Wallet, and while it’s not clear what kind of messages you might receive, we can imagine they might for example tell you about updates to the service — such as the ones we’re writing about here.
Finally, if you use Google Pay through Chrome for Android, the update lets you now “skip the Payment Request UI when you provide merchants with your name, email, and phone number.” That presumably makes for a faster, smoother payment process.
So while none of these upgrades are individually massive, combined they should make for a notable difference to your Google Pay experience.
The update will roll out automatically, so if you’re not seeing these changes yet, you likely will do soon. But to check what version of Google Play Services you have, you can head to Settings > Apps > Google Play Services, and you should see the version number at the bottom of this screen.
