Google Wallet, Google’s Mobile Payment System is Officially Live in South Africa

South Africa is the first country in Africa that Google Wallet will serve after it underwent a recent rebranding from Google Pay.

With the help of Google Wallet, users can send and receive money directly from their Android phones and smartwatches. It functions as a virtual wallet. With the most recent update, customers may now use the app as a boarding pass, event pass, COVID-19 immunization card, and car remote in addition to making payments.

The app was offered in 39 countries at the time of its introduction in July. The service now supports 45 nations, with South Africa being one of the most recent additions.

Users are only able to utilize their phones for payment processing and other use cases because Wear OS smartwatches do not support Google Wallet in these new additional areas.

Six banks in the nation have been mentioned by Google as partners with whom it will work to provide this service. The following banks will only accept Visa cards: Absa, Discovery Bank, FirstRand (FNB and RMB), Investec, Nedbank, and Standard Bank. Nedbank and Standard Bank will also accept MasterCard cards.

According to MyBroadband, the service will be accessible on the majority of Android devices that support Near Field Communications (NFC), Host Card Emulation (HCE), and Android version 5.0 or higher for smartphones. The majority of Huawei devices manufactured in recent years won’t be able to use the app, though, as the US government has prohibited them from utilizing Google Mobile Services (GMS).

On the other hand, iOS devices can download the Google Wallet app to store cards but are unable to use its tap-to-pay functionality.