Google Pay hopes to recover from brutal 2021 with new leadership

Typical Google move. Replace an existing product with one of the same name (or heralded as the replacement for another product/spiritual successor) but have fewer features and fundamental changes to how it works.

I'll never stop beating the drum of how Google shot themselves in the foot (I almost need a stronger metaphor to describe what they did) when it came to chat. Google Pay seems to following a similar path.

>> This new app was originally developed for India and is dramatically different from the old Google Pay app used in the US. For starters, the new app switched to using a phone number for identification instead of a Google account, which meant that a ton of features US users were accustomed to were no longer supported. Indian consumers are used to phone number identity thanks to apps like WhatsApp, and the limitations are not a big deal for users in that country thanks to smartphones being many consumers' only device.

For Google Pay in the US, however, relying on a SIM card for identity meant the Google Pay website functionality had to die, multi-device functionality went out the window, and Google Pay went from supporting multiple accounts to only supporting a single account. As we wrote shortly after launch day, the new app was a disaster.

This is incredible. Truly something to be insta fired for.

My Google Pay experience was one of reluctance. I eventually got around to using it and it worked decently, and then they updates something that required me to re-add my credit cards. It wasn't really worth the effort, since pulling a credit card out of my wallet isn't terribly difficult.

Google really seems to be declining (outside of DeepMind).

Is Google pay still a thing? Apple Pay is fantastic, shop pay is a distant #2 and PayPal even further being at 3 at least convenience wise