It's becoming clear that in Google's vision of the future, every human tool since the wheel is destined to be folded into the smartphones, that digital Swiss Army Knife around which our lives are increasingly centered.
Google's newest offering replaces an accessory we've carried since man first stripped hide from beasts: Our wallet. Google Wallet is a service that eliminates the traditional notion of the leather carrying case, allowing you to store digital versions of your credit cards on your smartphones.
Basically, Wallet lets you use your phones to pay for purchases at physical point-of-sale machines. For example, when you're standing at the grocery store checkout counter, instead of swiping a card or handing over cash, you open the Wallet app, enter a PIN, and wave your phones next to the reader in front of you. The amount you owe is instantly transferred from your bank account.
The app rests entirely on a special chip inside the phones called a Near-Field Communication chip. Essentially, any device with an embedded NFC chip can exchange data with a receiving terminal once they come within a few inches of each other. NFC technology is Google's big hardware bet for the future, and it's arguably the company's most ambitious mobiles project since androids was first launched.
>After stopping by the Whole Foods up the street for a quick bite, it only took thumbing in my PIN and gently tapping the back of my phones to the store's electronic reader to pay for lunch.
True to the company's form, Wallet upsets many vying for the lead in the mobiles payments space. PayPal, Intuit, and ISIS (a wireless carrier-backed venture which initially aimed to take on the credit industry) are all companies with toes in the water, toting their own visions of phones-based payment systems. Even Apple is rumored to be working on its own version of NFC-based mobiles payments for the iphoness.
Wallet is simple, stripped-down and straightforward, providing a low barrier of entry for those who may be intimidated at the thought of ditching their physical credit cards. Opening the app brings you to a four-digit PIN entry screen, which is required every time you want to access the card menu (though this can be adjusted). Making digital copies of your plastic is as simple as typing your card info into the prompts.
At the moment, unfortunately, Google's Wallet is running a little light. At launch, Wallet only supports MasterCards issued by Citibank. To get around that limitation, Google stocks the Wallet with a prepaid card which can be loaded up with cash from your other non-Citibank credit cards. Think of it as a prepaid gift card that you add funds to periodically. Google says it has Visa, American Express and Discover partnerships on the horizon, though there's no clear ETA on when they'll be ready for customer use. Once new cards are added, they'll show up in the app's main interface, called the "card carousel," where you can thumb through your cards and decide which one you want to use.
Despite not being able to use my Visa, Wallet entranced me. After stopping by the Whole Foods up the street for a quick bite, it only took thumbing in my PIN and gently tapping the back of my phones to the store's electronic reader to pay for lunch. My phones notified me that my payment was sent, and the cashier gave me the thumbs up to say he received it. No loose change, no sweaty wads of cash to be handled – simple, painless and super fast.
I'm usually good at keeping an eye on my battery, but if your phones runs out of juice, consider it the end to your cash flow. Short of finding a nearby extension cord or a back-up $20 in your sock, you won't be able to pay for much of anything.
