Google Closing Wallet API For Website Payment Processing

In the mobile payment space, Apple Pay dominates the headlines lately, but Google Wallet has been riding its coattails admirably. Via the web, there are even more big players, with Amazon and PayPal dominating the online transaction game. Though they don't specifically note why, Google is taking Wallet out of the hands of many Developers, and will be discontinuing its use for digital goods in March of next year. This definitely affects those who use Google as a payment service via their website, but doesn't affect Google Play at all.

To clarify, this doesn't affect your in-app purchases. Developers who use Wallet for Play Store sales won't be affected, and users will still be able to buy token packs (or whatever else they need) via the same Wallet system in apps.

Wallet shutting down does affect websites that use it to process payments for good and services. Via the announcement, we also learn that Google is taking almost no steps to educate users on Wallet going away, saying anyone who tries to use it — or has a recurring subscription processed via Wallet — will see a 404 error after March 2, 2105.

Google suggests any Developer using Wallet for goods "transition to an alternate solution", but doesn't guide us in any direction. They also won't be offering a replacement for their Wallet API.

It won't affect Google Play, and doesn't affect the point-of-sale Wallet transactions, but any website that may have made a habit of using Wallet as their payment processor now has to shift gears, and that's a bigger deal for the little guy than it is Google.

Source: Google