Google has fired themselves up a notch in their fight to gain a foothold in the person to person payment applications by releasing an update to the Google Wallet mobile app. In the new update, the Google Wallet will now allow users to make automatic bank transfers to their bank accounts. The move is clearly significant because now users do not have to remove money from the Google Wallet and then put it into their bank accounts next. It helps users in that the speed involved in them getting their money will now be good.
Google changed to a peer to peer payments app from last year, when they introduced the Android Pay option on Android devices, after one of their rivals, Apple Pay had made itself available to Android users. The company also ditched the Google Wallet plastic card which was associated with the app in their efforts to continue developing the peer to peer payments. Before the new update making a cash out from your balance was something which was hard before but with the change, it is expected to improve.
Users of the Wallet will now be able to select a bank account or a debit card to make their transfers from the Wallet. Once a bank account is put through, users will not need to make any manual cash out actions, but rather they will see the money automatically available there. However, it does necessarily mean that the money will be instantly available on the bank account.
That will depend on several factors, key which include, who the user banks with, and whether the money is being credited back to a debit card. Transfers to debit cards are expected t be instant, though some banks might actually take time to approve them. Transferring money to your bank account might take upto 1-3 working days.
The change also means that when users share money between themselves, the money will automatically go to their bank accounts without them having to manually put it there. And ofcourse users can still keep money in their Google Wallet balance if they feel they need the money there. Other times which might cause delay of transfer of funds will also be encountered. Google might have to make additional verifications on the user involved, and also to run fraud checks.
The move is being welcomed in the peer to peer industry as it continues to be saturated by the number of services now available on the market. Facebook, Snapchat, Paypal, SquareCash are all on the market at the moment. Apple is also expected to introduce support payments on their iMessage platform.
