Google’s made a lot of changes to its Wallet app these past couple of years, and the company more recently announced a series of updates for both Google Wallet and Google Pay, including new digital ID expansions in Europe and streamlined checkout features for online shoppers.
As such, Google says that the update focuses on privacy-first identification. Following recent digital ID rollouts for users in India, Brazil, Singapore, and Taiwan a while back, Google says that it will launch official digital ID support in select European Union member states this summer.
Alongside government IDs, Google will work with private financial institutions to issue digital age credentials. Starting with Germany’s Sparkasse Bank (with more to follow in the future), users can verify their age via Google Wallet without disclosing sensitive personal data like their full name, birth date, or home address.
For e-commerce, Google is launching a new direct checkout feature that embeds a user’s saved Google Wallet payment methods directly onto a retailer’s checkout page. The feature is currently live for select merchants using the financial platform Airwallex, with support for Adyen users set to roll out soon.
Finally, Google says that it’s working on addressing checkout friction caused by strict European security regulations, like mandatory one-time passcodes and multi-site redirects for example. That said, Google is working on an upgraded Secure Payment Authentication feature to bypass these steps, which will debut in the United Kingdom and Poland over the coming months through partnerships with Visa, Checkout.com, Autopay, and Adyen.
