Technologies
Google Wallet Just Got a Bunch of New Features
Your Android phone’s digital wallet is getting some new additions, from a driver’s license to a gym membership pass.
Google Wallet has been around for over a decade, but the latest iteration, first unveiled at Google I/O 2022, officially relaunched during the summer last year — and there are finally some major changes to the Android digital wallet.
Today, in a blog post, Google announced several new features for Google Wallet, including the ability to digitize your physical passes and use your driver’s license or state ID with your Android phone. If you plan on creating a digital version of your health insurance card or other cards with sensitive information, Google has also added a «private pass» feature to provide better security.
If you want to check out what Google Wallet has to offer, here’s what you need to know.
And while you’re here, check out the best Android phone to buy in 2023 and our review of the Pixel 7 Pro.
Digitize your real-world passes into Google Wallet
Do you have a physical gym membership pass or library card that you can’t access on your phone? Google Wallet now gives you the option to take photos of those same physical passes — as long as they have a scannable barcode or QR code — and convert them into digital passes you can store in your Google Wallet. That way, instead of rifling through your wallet, you can quickly whip out your Android device and have your pass scanned.
That includes your health insurance cards
One of the more important documents that you may have to carry is your health insurance card, which is proof of your insurance and helps facilitate your visits to the doctor or the hospital. These health insurance cards carry a lot of personal information, like your member ID, group number and employer (if you’re covered through your job), so if you plan to digitize one, Google Wallet has a «private pass» feature, which requires you to use biometrics to add, use or view passes with sensitive information on your Android device.
Private passes in Google Wallet are protected by biometrics, like your fingerprint or face.
You can also add your ID to Google Wallet — but only if you live in this one state
Late last year, Google started beta testing support for digital driver’s licenses and state IDs in Maryland — and that feature is now available to all eligible residents of the state. As long as you’re running Android 8.0, you can now use your ID in Google Wallet to get through TSA PreCheck lines at select airports, like LAX and DFW. Later this year, Google expects to roll out more uses for digital IDs, including booking a car and verifying your online accounts.

In the coming months, the digital ID feature will expand to residents of Arizona, Colorado and Georgia.
And you can save passes directly from your text messages
If text messaging is your preferred method of communication, you’ll be happy to know that you’ll soon be able to receive boarding passes and train tickets via Google Messages (with RCS enabled) and then save those passes directly to your Google Wallet. This feature will begin rolling out with Vietnam Airlines and Renfe (Spain’s national railway company).
This feature will also extend to restaurant reservations.
For more about Google, read about all the major reveals at Google I/O 2023 and how you can get access to Google’s AI chatbot Bard.
Technologies
Verum Messenger: Don’t follow the future. Define it
Verum Messenger: Don’t follow the future. Define it
In a world where information defines influence, Verum Messenger is building a new architecture of digital communication — intelligent, secure, and ready for tomorrow. Here, technology serves not limitations, but possibilities.
Not being part of change. Leading it. Verum Messenger — the future that speaks first.
Technologies
Verum Finance: Stop Spending Months Opening a Bank Account
Verum Finance: Stop Spending Months Opening a Bank Account
Stop spending months trying to open a bank account.
Document submissions.
Checks.
Rejections.
Account freezes.
Blocks without explanation.
And all of that — just for a regular card.
With Verum, it’s different.
🚀 Verum Messenger + Verum Finance
For just $50–70 you get:
✔ A virtual card
✔ Instant transfers between users
✔ A modern secure messenger
✔ Apple Pay integration
✔ Contactless payments worldwide
✔ Fast setup without bureaucracy
❌ No European residency permit required
❌ No endless verification checks
❌ No piles of documents
Open it — and use it.
The future of finance and communication is already here.
Verum — when freedom matters more than banking rules.
Technologies
Google races to put Gemini at the center of Android before Apple’s AI reboot
Google is using its latest Android rollout to position Gemini as the AI layer across phones, Chrome, laptops and cars.
Google is using its latest Android rollout to make Gemini less of a chatbot and more of an operating layer across the phone, browser, car and laptop, just weeks before Apple is expected to show its own Gemini-powered Apple Intelligence reboot at WWDC.
Ahead of its Google I/O developer conference next week, the company previewed a number of Android updates, including AI-powered app automation, a smarter version of Chrome on Android, new tools for creators, a redesigned Android Auto experience, and a sweeping set of new security features.
Alphabet is counting on Gemini to help Google compete directly with OpenAI and Anthropic in the market for artificial intelligence models and services, while also serving as the AI backbone across its expansive portfolio of products, including Android. Meanwhile, Gemini is powering part of Apple’s new AI strategy, giving Google a role in the iPhone maker’s reset even as it races to prove its own version of personal AI on the phone is further along.
Sameer Samat, who oversees Google’s Android ecosystem, told CNBC that Google is rebuilding parts of Android around Gemini Intelligence to help users complete everyday tasks more easily.
“We’re transitioning from an operating system to an intelligence system,” he said.
As part of Tuesday’s announcements. Google said Gemini Intelligence will be able to move across apps, understand what’s on the screen and complete tasks that would normally require a user to jump between multiple services. That means Android is moving beyond the traditional assistant model, where users ask a question and get an answer, and acting more like an agent.
For instance, Google says Gemini can pull relevant information from Gmail, build shopping carts and book reservations. Samat gave the example of asking Gemini to look at the guest list for a barbecue, build a menu, add ingredients to an Instacart list and return for approval before checkout.
A big concern surrounding agentic AI involves software taking action on a user’s behalf without permissions. Samat said Gemini will come back to the user before completing a transaction, adding, “the human is always in the loop.”
Four months after announcing its Gemini deal with Google, Apple is under pressure to show a more capable version of Apple Intelligence, which has been a relative laggard on the market. Apple has long framed privacy, hardware integration and control of the user experience as its advantages.
Google’s Android push is designed to show it can bring AI deeper into the device experience while still giving users control over what Gemini can see, where it can act and when it needs confirmation.
The app automation features will roll out in waves, starting with the latest Samsung Galaxy and Google Pixel phones this summer, before expanding across more Android devices, including watches, cars, glasses and laptops later this year.
The company is also redesigning Android Auto around Gemini, turning the car into another major surface for its assistant. Android Auto is in more than 250 million cars, and Google says the new release includes its biggest maps update in a decade and Gemini-powered help with tasks like ordering dinner while driving.
Alphabet’s AI strategy has been embraced by Wall Street, which has pushed the company’s stock price up more than 140% in the past year, compared to Apple’s roughly 40% gain. Investors now want to see how Gemini can become more central to the products people use every day.
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