Now that we have seen Google Wallet become the norm around the United States, the Mountain View company feels it is time to start offering some more features to entice shoppers to use it and for stores to make it readily available. That is starting today with the new multiple account sector and shipping information features that are now rolling out in this 2.0-R163-v17 update.
My favorite feature of this update is the added shipment information. With it, users can see if an item ships out on time, still waiting for shipment or not being delivered. With so much of this application upside coming from online orders, shipping plays an integral role for those shopping from in front of their computer screens. It is after all a big reason we prefer not to drive up the street and use cash. However, often for people it is the lack of shipping details available that turns them off making a purchase. That will be better now to reassure consumer confidence.
Additional notable things that have changed include the “explore offers” is removed and replaced with the live in maps. There are also some minor tweaks, bug fixes and performance improvements in this build. Last but not least are some UI changes. Most notably there is no more admin divider.
Many may not know this, but in it is early days back in 2012 Google Checkout merged into what is now known as Google Wallet. From there it is a mixed bag of opinions about how far this service will go. By mid 2012, there were over 200,000 NFC readers being used in stores in the US that are compatible with Google readers. Since that time it has seen a steady growth and now we see Android updates and smartphones coming with NFC as the feature to have. After taking the bull by the horns after what was labelled a release, Google has tried very hard to not give up on the Wallet service and it is starting to pay dividends.
What we hope to see in the near future from the Mountain View company is this service taken outside of the United States so that people from Australia, Europe, Asia and other parts of the world that also shop a lot can spend money using Wallet. If trends keep going skyward, then we can only assume that the eventual release on other continents is near.
Download the APK here. If this link goes down, we have several other mirrors available. You can also try the Android File Host here, the Zipp Share here and the Mega mirror.