Android and iPhone users may be jealously protective of their phone platform of choice, but secretly, both camps know there are some features that other phones have that theirs don’t. Google now seems to be addressing one underperforming area, improving Google Wallet so it can do better at something the iPhone does brilliantly: digital maps and boarding passes.
Google Wallet just got a lot more similar to Apple Wallet.
March 20 update below. This post was first published on March 18, 2024.
Both Apple Wallet and the equivalent on Android phones, Google Wallet, are good at hosting digital versions of credit and debit cards. But the iPhone version has always been stronger for passes — it’s no coincidence that it was originally called Passbook.
Because it’s been done for longer, apps for airlines, theaters, concert halls, and others routinely include a button designed to add them to a wallet where they’re easy to find.
Now it seems the passes that slip so easily into the iPhone Wallet app could just as easily slip into Google Wallet. writer for Android Mishaal Rahman announced on X that files in the .pkpass format used by Apple can now be imported into Google Wallet.
And 9to5Google followed up by saying that other users have confirmed they’ve been able to do the same, though it doesn’t appear to be available to everyone yet.
When it becomes more widespread, it will be a significant increase in benefits. Those websites and apps with buttons inviting users to click to add passes to Apple Wallet too often didn’t include an equivalent for downloading to Google Wallet.
As one Reddit user says, “For a few years Google didn’t have its own digital ticketing system, so while I can now download movie and train tickets in Google Wallet format, before the only option was Apple’s pkpass format. And there are still some places that offer just a digital ticket format for Apple since it’s been around a lot longer.”
Since Google offers the same compatibility, Android users should be able to click on the same Apple Wallet link and add the pass to their Android phone.
There are third-party apps that could have the same effect, but an official way to do it with Google is welcome.
What’s not yet clear is whether Google will be able to offer the same versatility as Apple, where you can update your boarding pass if, for example, your seat on the plane changes.
Update as of March 20. Updates to key Google apps continue apace on Android phones. Contacts—the app none of us can live without—has just been updated in two big ways. First, it has a slight redesign. The filter row for categories like Phone Contacts, Email Contacts, and Company is gone, though you can retrieve it by tapping the filter icon now located near the account name. Losing this certainly adds to the smoother, cleaner look of the app.
Second, and even more fun, the app now offers a new section. Tap the tab in the lower right corner of the screen, labeled (in a somewhat utilitarian way) Repair and Manage, and you’ll be taken to a page of ways to tweak things. There are useful items like Merge and Fix, which means you no longer have to have seven different cards for one person, as things get a little out of control as time goes on, instead of putting them all in one place.
And, as he noted 9to5Googlewell, there’s a new section called Ringtones for Contacts that’s designed to set custom ringtones for individual contacts, so you can know who’s calling even without turning the phone over if it’s face down. You can choose from dozens of ringtones. You can also import your own ringtones on the Google Pixel using Pixel Sounds.
This may seem like a small change, but it’s enough to select and assign a ringtone to individual contacts, or manage those contacts to change their ringtone, say.
In other words, it’s not just Google Wallet that’s being upgraded — Google has plans for key apps in the Android user experience.