Google Partners with AT&T Mobility, T-Mobile USA, Verizon Wireless, and Softcard to Revive Google Wallet

Mobile payment systems have grown in popularity because they allow consumers to make purchases, send money to others, and store loyalty and gift cards, among other benefits.

Following the success of Apple Pay, Samsung announced that it had acquired LoopPay (@LoopPay), the transformative digital wallet platform. Samsung’s (@SamsungMobileUS) latest acquisition was clearly engineered to enable it to compete with Apple. Google, of course, has its own mobile payment system, Google Wallet.

Not to be outdone in this arena, Google announced on February 23, 2015, that it was working with major carriers in the United States to help more Android users gain the benefits of tap and pay. “We’re excited to announce that we’re working with AT&T Mobility, T-Mobile USA and Verizon Wireless, as well as their mobile payments company Softcard, to help more Android users get the benefits of tap and pay,” announced Ariel Bardin, Google’s Vice President of Payments.

Google’s tap and pay feature was first introduced in 2011, and since then the service has grown rapidly. “You can use the Google Wallet app on Android devices, on any carrier network, to tap and pay anywhere NFC [near field communication] is accepted. Over the years, we’ve received great feedback from people who use this feature and we’ve continued investing to make it easy and secure for more people to pay with their phones.”

Following Google’s partnership with the aforementioned U.S. carriers, the Google Wallet app will come pre-installed on Android phones running KitKat or higher that are sold by these carriers later in 2015. While early rumors were swirling that Google had bought Softcard, Google has clarified that it did not acquire the troubled company. Instead, it had purchased the IP and certain assets from Softcard.

While Softcard and its app will remain in existence for the time being, the company will probably shut down eventually.

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