Photo: Google
Google has recently decided to discontinue two more Android features aimed at drivers, pretty much because they didn’t make much sense anymore.
The first of them is the Google Pay support to pay for gas.
Announced a long time ago, the feature was originally developed by Google in partnership with a series of U.S. gas stations, including Exxon and Shell. The purpose was as simple as it could be: to allow users to pay for gas right from their phones by simply providing the pump number and then using the cards saved in their accounts.
Needless to say, the world of contactless payments has evolved a lot lately, so going forward, users can easily pay for gas with their phones through the Google Wallet right at the pump. The original feature is therefore going away on December 12.
The second is the support for paying for street parking from the same app. The feature worked very similarly to gas payments, allowing users to simply specify a zone number and then introduce the amount of time they wanted to park for.
The Android integration provided a pretty convenient approach, including notifications to let users know when the parking was approaching the end, with dedicated options to add time before it expired.
But according to Google itself, such capabilities no longer make any sense because most parking providers already have their own dedicated apps that very often offer similar features. Truth be told, this is perfectly accurate, as most providers do have their own apps, typically with Google Pay integration as well. So at the end of the day, you can still pay with your phone, but the process takes place through a dedicated parking app.
Just like the gas payment feature, the parking support is going away on December 12, so you still have a few more days to install your local city’s mobile payment app.
Announced a long time ago, the feature was originally developed by Google in partnership with a series of U.S. gas stations, including Exxon and Shell. The purpose was as simple as it could be: to allow users to pay for gas right from their phones by simply providing the pump number and then using the cards saved in their accounts.
Needless to say, the world of contactless payments has evolved a lot lately, so going forward, users can easily pay for gas with their phones through the Google Wallet right at the pump. The original feature is therefore going away on December 12.
The second is the support for paying for street parking from the same app. The feature worked very similarly to gas payments, allowing users to simply specify a zone number and then introduce the amount of time they wanted to park for.
The Android integration provided a pretty convenient approach, including notifications to let users know when the parking was approaching the end, with dedicated options to add time before it expired.
But according to Google itself, such capabilities no longer make any sense because most parking providers already have their own dedicated apps that very often offer similar features. Truth be told, this is perfectly accurate, as most providers do have their own apps, typically with Google Pay integration as well. So at the end of the day, you can still pay with your phone, but the process takes place through a dedicated parking app.
Just like the gas payment feature, the parking support is going away on December 12, so you still have a few more days to install your local city’s mobile payment app.
Google News