Google Wallet launches in India

Google announced the launch of the Google Wallet app in India. This app offers fast and secure access to everyday essentials, enabling people to conveniently store and retrieve important digital documents like boarding passes, loyalty cards, movie tickets, and more. Google Wallet complements Google Pay, which will continue to serve the payments needs of users across India.

At launch, Google has partnered with 20 of India’s top brands to enable the Google Wallet experience, including PVR & INOX, Air India, Indigo, Flipkart, Pine Labs, Kochi Metro, Abhibus and many others, with more partners to be added in the months to follow.

Highlighting the significance of this launch in bringing new levels of convenience for Android users across the country, Ram Papatla, GM & India Engineering Lead, Android at Google, said, “The arrival of Google Wallet in India marks an important milestone in Android’s India journey, bringing innovative and convenient experiences to simplify peoples’ daily lives. We are delighted to partner with many of India’s top brands to offer a comprehensive solution that helps you securely access and manage your everyday essentials. From boarding passes to loyalty cards, and event tickets to public transport passes – they’re there when you need them.”

Google Wallet helps users better organize peoples’ lives in many ways:

• Save movie or event tickets: Partnering with PVR and INOX, Android users can now conveniently add their movies and event tickets to their Google Wallet.
• Access boarding passes: Collaborating with airlines like Air India, Air India Express, and online travel companies like MakeMyTrip, Easemytrip, and Ixigo, travelers can easily save and access their mobile boarding passes. As a bonus, Pixel device users can add their boarding pass to their Google Wallet by simply taking a screenshot and tapping “Add to Google Wallet.”
• Redeem loyalty or gift cards: Working with Flipkart (Supercoins), Dominos, Shoppers Stop, and brands supported by loyalty program enablers Pinelabs, EasyRewardz and Twid, shoppers can now store and use digital copies of their loyalty and gift cards. 
• Ride public transit: Partnering with Kochi Metro, Hyderabad Metro, VRL Travels, and Abhibus, travelers can easily store their transit tickets.
• Use your Android phone as your corporate badge: Partnering with system integrators Wavelynx and Alert Enterprise, workspace access will be more convenient with the ability to store and access a corporate badge in Google Wallet.
• Digitize physical documents: Easily create new passes in Wallet from any image containing a barcode or QR code, like airline boarding passes, luggage tags, or parking receipts.
• Automatically view important tickets from Gmail: After booking a movie ticket, IPL ticket, or train ticket, the event confirmation sent to a person’s Gmail account will automatically appear in their Google Wallet, if they have smart personalization settings in Gmail turned on.

“In our mission to delight our customers through innovative digital experiences, we are always looking for opportunities to partner with global companies like Google to bring guest-friendly capabilities to life. In this quest, we are glad to be the first airline from India to make our boarding passes available directly on the Google Wallet. This helps us provide an environmentally friendly solution to our valued guests that also provides digital features such as auto-update of boarding pass details in a convenient central location on their Android phones.” said Dr. Satya Ramaswamy, Chief Digital and Technology Officer, Air India

Speaking at the launch, Gaurav Arora, Vice President of Payments and Supercoins, Flipkart, said, “At Flipkart, we prioritize creating the best customer experience. Over the years, we have consistently worked towards ensuring our SuperCoins Reward Programme, which is one of India’s largest rewards programmes, is the most fulfilling experience for every customer. We believe that the redemption of SuperCoins is as enjoyable as earning money, and we are excited to reward shoppers in new ways. We would like to congratulate and welcome Google Wallet in India.”

Sanjeev Kumar Bijli, Executive Director, PVR INOX Limited, added, “At PVR INOX, we constantly strive to elevate the customer experience, and we’re delighted to collaborate with Google to extend the Google Wallet experience for our patrons. Movie-going is an essential aspect of people’s daily routines for out-of-home entertainment. By integrating purchases made through the PVR and INOX Web and App, including tickets, food and beverages, and the Passport subscription program, customers can conveniently access their bookings through Google Wallet.”

Like all Google products, Google Wallet is built to the highest security and privacy standards, where people have full control over what information is stored and how it is used.

Google Wallet is now available for download from the Google Play Store for all Android users in India.