Hacker News Reader

Comment by mikestew | Hacker News Reader

To revive Wallet, Google needs to make it usable. I'm not exactly unsaavy to the ways of a phone, but on the last phone I had with NFC there was no explanation of how to get it to work at POS (and how to set it up it all isn't very clear). Does the phone need to be awake? Do I need to run an app? I tried it once, didn't work, never touched it again. Mobile payment is something I'm just not going to put a lot of effort into.

Contrast to Apple Pay. Held the phone up, prompted for fingerprint, done.

View on HN

Actually, Google Wallet works almost exactly the same as ApplePay (my spouse has an iPhone 6, I have a Moto X 2014); I've seen and used both.

Just tap the phone on the NFC device and that's it (the PIN pad at the retail may then prompt you to hit credit or debit, if you choose debit, you just enter your wallet pin again). If Google Wallet needs to be unlocked first, it will prompt you for the wallet pin.

In fairness, it used to be far more cumbersome. They fixed most of the user interface problems with the release of Android 5.0.

But unfortunately most devices don't (and can't) run Android 5.0, so they're stuck with the old, cumbersome Wallet (or, worse, tried it, gave up on it because it was a terrible experience, will never try it again).

True, but in the same vein, most iPhones out there don't have NFC built in. (Was added in the iPhone 6)

I could've sworn it worked the same when I was running 4.whatever on my old Nexus 5 prior to the 5.0 update. From an end user perspective I haven't noticed much of a change in at least a couple of years (aside from some vendors disabling support in favor of their own tap to pay).

The difference I believe came with the ability for the app to automatically be run in the background and for control over which one was used for Tap and Pay, which given today's announcement from Google makes sense.

Maybe this was fixed in Android 4.4, but I would swear the experience changed for me sometime right at or after 4.4.

Notably, I didn't have to make sure the app was open and wallet unlocked first, whereas with Android 5.0 it "just works".

To be fair, the updated design (Material Design) is mostly back-ported all the way to 2.3. The user experience is practically the same on 5.0 as pre-5.0.

I've never had any issues at all when it was supported. If anything, lack of motivation to update POS terminals has been the only thing keeping me from using it at more than the handful of stores I regularly visit where it's available.

Just tap, type PIN, receipt scrolls up the screen of my phone when it goes through and I get an email copy.

Interestingly enough, it was actually supported at more of the places I visited until the Apple version came out and brought increased attention to the concept...prompting many vendors to block it and try to push their own inferior solution.

I really wish that crap would stop. There's already a fairly compatible standard option that is working with both Apple and Google offerings (who would have thought!?) and offers the added convenience and security these setups provide. And rather than make a better app or gizmo that also works with the existing setup and competes on features or usefulness, they just block the competition before customers have a chance to start expecting them to work.

I still don't really understand if Google Wallet is available in the UK or what that means. They've apparently launched a way to pay people through Gmail in the UK this month - and it sounds like it's basically Wallet, but I don't think I can actually use it to buy stuff with my phone in person yet.

I've been using a contactless card for a while now and they're accepted in loads of places, but Google just don't seem interested in supporting it in the UK. Even the London oyster system works contactless now - I wouldn't be surprised if Apple Pay works flawlessly with that too.

There's a little how to use Wallet introduction at the beginning when you first setup Wallet on the phone. And it says it needs to be awake.

Hmm, must have missed that. I mean, despite my reference to Apple, I want stuff like this to work no matter makes it. So I'm confident, despite a stated desire to put minimal effort in, I did at least a little due diligence before wandering off to my nearest NFC reader. But when I'm standing in line with people behind me, stuff like this gets one shot. I'd have abandoned Apple Pay just as quickly had it not worked the way the videos claim, or better yet how I hoped it would work.

I have been using Google Wallet with zero problems since the beginning of 2012. Google doesn't need to make it more usable because it's incredibly easy to use. They need to market it better. Not many people know about it.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com