Google Pay Send

Mobile payment system developed by Google

Google Pay Send, previously known as Google Wallet, was a peer to peer payments service developed by Google before its merger into Google Pay. It allowed people to send and receive money from a mobile device or desktop computer. In 2018, Android Pay and Google Wallet were unified into a single pay system called Google Pay. The old Wallet app was rebranded Google Pay Send, before it was discontinued as well in 2020.

Google Pay is structured to allow its patrons to send money to each other. To send money, a Google Pay user enters the email address or phone number of the recipient. The recipient must then link that phone number or email address to a bank account in order to access those funds. If the recipient also has a Google Pay account, the funds will post to that account directly. Users can link up to two bank accounts when the Wallet account is created. Received money goes to the Google Pay Balance and stays there until the user decides to cash out to a linked account. The Google Pay app is available for free from either Google Play or the App Store. After downloading the app, the user creates a four digit personal identification number (PIN) for managing everything within their Google Pay account. The PIN verifies access to the Wallet app on the user's mobile device. Before it was discontinued on June 30, 2016, the Google Wallet Card was recognized by the Cirrus network operated by MasterCard (rather than the Plus network operated by Visa). In September 2017, Google launched its first major payments service outside the United States, in Tez, India.

Google demonstrated the original version of the service at a press conference on May 26, 2011. The first app was released in the US only on September 19, 2011. Initially, the app only supported Mastercard cards issued by Citibank. On May 15, 2013, Google announced the integration of Google Wallet and Gmail, allowing users to send money through Gmail attachments. While Google Wallet is available only in the United States, the Gmail integration is currently available in the U. S. and the United Kingdom. The physical Google Wallet Card was an optional addition to the app which allowed users to make purchases at point of sale (in stores or online) drawing from funds in their Google Wallet account, attached debit card account, or bank account. The card could also be used to withdraw cash at ATMs with no Google associated fee, and could be used like a debit card for virtually any purpose, including such things as renting a car. The Wallet Card was discontinued on June 30, 2016, and replaced with Android Pay. The original version of Google Wallet allowed users to make point of sale purchases with their mobile devices using near field communication (NFC) technology. As of September 2015, however, Google dropped NFC from Google Wallet, offering the technology only through Android Pay, which is a separate application available only to Android users. As a result, any gift cards, loyalty programs, and promotional offers stored in an older version of Google Wallet could no longer be used. For Android users, those outstanding offers and gift cards were automatically transferred to Android Pay. For iOS users, instructions were provided to export the offers for alternative use. There were no reported security problems with the NFC technology.

Regarding an earlier version of Google Wallet (in 2012), an analysis by security company Nowsecure revealed that some card information stored by Google Wallet was accessible outside of the application. It is suggested that hackers could create a way to intercept data by eavesdropping on Google Analytics, which monitors apps used on the Android OS. A previous analysis by the same firm revealed a number of other exploits that have since been fixed.

Privacy concerns include the storing of data regarding payment information, transaction details, payment attempts and other information stored by Google indefinitely. The privacy policy for Google Wallet, called the Google Payments Privacy Notice, indicates that much of the data is stored but may not be shared outside Google except under certain circumstances. Information that may be collected upon signing up includes credit or debit card number and expiration date, address, phone number, date of birth, social security number, or taxpayer ID number. Information that may be collected about a transaction made through Google Wallet includes date, time, and amount of transaction, merchant's location and description, a description of goods or services purchased, any photo the user associates with the transaction, the names and email addresses of sender and recipient, the type of payment method used, and a description of the reason for the transaction if included. The storage of such personal information about users' transactions is of significant financial value to a company that earns much of its revenue from data, but may be controversial to users aware of the policies. Information collected is shared with Google's affiliates, meaning other companies owned and controlled by Google Inc., which can be used for their everyday business purposes. They provide the option to opt out of certain sharing capacities with these affiliates. Google states that it will only share personal information with other companies or individuals outside of Google in the following circumstances:

Google ran a competitor to PayPal, Google Checkout, from 2006 to 2013. In 2011, Google Wallet replaced Checkout's services, and development on Checkout was discontinued in 2013.