One of the main advantages of the Android operating system over iOS is its more extensive support for customization. Android not only allows you to change the default home screen launcher, but also the default assistant service, default browser app, default dialer app, and default SMS app. Starting with Android 15, the operating system will also let you choose a default wallet app.
Android, unlike iOS, has long allowed third-party apps to access the NFC chip for contactless payments. Most Android devices ship with Google Pay as the default contactless payment app, but Galaxy devices ship with Samsung Pay as the default app. In any case, the Android OS allows users to choose which app to set as the default payment app. On Android, users can change this setting by going to Settings → Connected devices → Connection settings → NFC → Contactless payments → Default payment app, as shown below.
Changing Android’s default contactless payment app takes a few taps, as you can see. Many users may not even know that they can change this setting. You don’t see it listed with other default settings under Settings → Apps → Default apps. To fix this, Android 15 is preparing to add a new “wallet app” setting, according to the code snippets Android Titles found inside the latest Android 14 QPR3 Beta 2.1 update.
According to Strings, “wallet apps can store your credit and loyalty cards, car keys, and other things to help with various forms of transactions.”
<string name="role_wallet_description">Wallet apps can store your credit and loyalty cards, car keys and other things to help with various forms of transactions.</string>
<string name="role_wallet_label">Default wallet app</string>
<string name="role_wallet_short_label">Wallet app</string>
This is exactly what wallet apps like Google Wallet and Samsung Wallet already do, which is why it’s no surprise that Google Wallet already appears on the “default wallet app” settings page that we’ve manually enabled. In addition to Google Wallet, the American Express (“Amex”) app also appears on the “default wallet app” settings page. Any app with default support for contactless payments can also act as a wallet app, according to a code change that implements this feature in Android 15.
If you’re wondering what the difference is between the new “default wallet app” setting and the old “default payment app” setting, there really isn’t one. In fact, by activating the new “default wallet app” page, pressing “Contactless payments” under Settings → Connected devices → Connection settings → NFC redirects the user to the new page instead of the old one. For the most part, the new “default wallet app” setting appears to be a rebranded version of the existing “default payment app” setting.
However, there is one minor difference between the two. The new “default wallet app” is defined using Android’s Roles API, a platform and developer feature introduced in Android 10. A role is defined as “a unique name within the system associated with specific permissions and privileges.” Android has a bunch of internally defined roles. However, most of them can only belong to system applications. The new wallet role is not limited to system apps, however, so it’s visible under Android’s “default apps” settings.
Advantages
One of the benefits of the Roles API is that applications can use it to request that you assign them a specific role. In this case, wallet apps may ask you to assign them the new wallet role in Android 15, so you don’t need to go into settings to do so. Your device manufacturer can still set the default settings for you, like Google did with its Pixel phones, but your preferred wallet app can download it with your permission.
<string name="role_wallet_request_description">No permissions needed</string>
<string name="role_wallet_request_title">Set %1$s as your default wallet app?</string>
Other than that, the introduction of the wallet role in Android 15 doesn’t bring any additional benefits to apps as far as I can tell. Still, making this default setting more visible to users and easier for third parties to access could alleviate some of the pressure Google has recently faced from regulators.