Google Wallet looks like it could be heading back to the iPhone, almost two years after Google Pay was retired nearly everywhere. A new report has spotted code hinting at an iOS version, which would spare the iPhone 18 Pro Max and every other current iPhone that Safari detour.
The iOS clues hiding inside Google Play Services
Five separate strings turned up across Google apps, including Quick Share Extension and Google Play Services, all pairing Google Wallet with iOS. The teardown that found them digs through code in progress rather than anything Google has announced, so it is early by nature.
It is also the same kind of work that surfaced the Material 3 redesign we covered back in March, and the report is careful here, noting that strings alone do not prove a dedicated iPhone app is in development.
Still, five of them across two different apps is not nothing.
If Google Wallet hit the App Store, what would you use it for?
1 Votes
What Apple opened up in iOS 18.1
Right now, the only way to reach your Google Wallet passes on an iPhone is the web version in Safari, which works but is a chore next to tapping an icon. A native app would mostly just remove that step, and for anyone who lives on Android but carries an iPhone, it comes up a lot.
Google Wallet on the web, back when Google introduced it in 2016. | Image by Google
The bigger question is not whether Google can ship an app, it is whether that app could actually tap to pay. Apple opened the iPhone's NFC chip and its Secure Element to outside developers with iOS 18.1, not iOS 18, and the Secure Element is just the isolated chip where card details live so no app ever sees your real card number.
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Access is not automatic, though. A developer has to sign a commercial agreement with Apple, request the NFC and SE entitlement and pay the fees, and the US was in the first batch of markets where that became possible.
In practice, that would let Google Wallet be set as your default and open on a double-click of the side button, the way Apple Pay does now.
Which iPhone owners would really notice
If you are all-in on Apple Wallet, this would not move much. Apple Pay already handles tap to pay, boarding passes and car keys on the iPhone, and adding a second wallet app is not an upgrade on its own.
The people who would notice are the ones with a foot in both camps. That is anyone whose gym pass, transit card or event ticket was issued through Google, anyone switching from a Pixel to an iPhone, and anyone keeping an Android phone as a backup.
Google has had almost two years to do this
What gets me about this one is the timing. Apple has had that door open since iOS 18.1 arrived in late 2024, and the first company to walk through it was Vipps, a Norwegian payment app, not Google.
So I'm reading these strings as a maybe rather than a plan, and I'd keep expectations low on the tap-to-pay part especially. Still, I'd take even a pass-only Google Wallet on my iPhone over opening Safari one more time, and I'd love to see Google commit to it properly.
Johanna Romero is a Senior News Writer at PhoneArena, covering mobile technology news across Android, iOS, wearables, and the Google ecosystem she knows best. Drawing on 15 years in IT and tech support from 2007 to 2022, she brings a user-friendly eye for the practical features and lesser-known tricks readers care about. Google named her an official #TeamPixel member in 2022, and she also reviews the latest devices on her YouTube channel, JoJo the Techie.
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