The old Google Pay app is being prepped to die next week, at least in the U.S. Last month, Google sent out a notice to users of its payment app that it's killing off many of the features that allow it to function. While a select few features will remain — like contactless payments — the old Google Pay app, as we know it, is effectively dead as of April 5 while Google transitions users in the U.S. to the new app. Originally, we was surmised that this would potentially break the app on Wear OS, although it has come to our attention the inaccuracies with that claim.
Google is shifting focus solely to the new, redesigned application, which first launched in India four years ago. That particular version of the app will eventually become the de-facto option globally, and we can walk you through how to download and set up the new Google Pay. Our initial concern with the new version of the app is that it does not allow multiple devices to be used with the same account, forcing you to switch accounts when a new phone is detected. This perceived "oversight" was due to what we believed was a switch from Google Pay being tied to one's account to then being associated with a user's phone number.
Speaking to Google, we can now report that this is not correct and that this limitation was put in place for security purposes:
The change is that the app connects your Google account with the phone number for improved security and identity verification in the app. This helps us reduce fraud by providing additional identifiers for the recipient and enable users to find others using either GMail or phone number.
It was believed that this limitation would cause Google Pay on Wear OS to cease functioning come April 5th, when Google would strip away most of the features from the old version of the app, but we are happy to report that this is also not the case. According to Google, it will continue to function after April 5th on the best Wear OS watches in supported countries, and Wear OS will continue to be shipped with Google Pay.
The original post intended to express caution for the shutdown date as Google had not yet confirmed that Google Pay would still work on Wear OS. Android Central has since clarified with Google that it will continue to work, and we apologize for any confusion that it has caused.
