The topic Google Wallet is testing a better way to manage your Gmail receipts and passes is currently the subject of lively discussion — readers and analysts are keeping a close eye on developments.
This is taking place in a dynamic environment: companies’ decisions and competitors’ reactions can quickly change the picture.
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Google Wallet users will be well aware that it’s long been much more than a place to keep your payment cards. It can store everything from boarding passes to receipts, which is handy until the app starts feeling like the digital version of a drawer full of old paper scraps. Google now appears to be working on a better way to keep the Gmail-linked passes and receipts part of that mess under control.
While poking around under the hood of the app, we managed to enable a new “Manage passes from Gmail” settings option in development. True to the label, tapping it opens a “Passes & receipts from Gmail” page where Google Wallet can show receipts and passes pulled from your Gmail inbox, all in one place.
Google Wallet can already add certain items from Gmail, so this isn’t a brand-new connection between the two apps. When you enable “Smart features and personalization in other Google products” in Gmail, Google’s support page says Wallet can automatically add Gmail items such as loyalty cards, event tickets, train tickets, boarding passes, and receipts from tap-to-pay transactions.
The new part here is a dedicated Wallet page for managing Gmail-sourced passes and receipts, including email receipts that don’t appear to be limited to tap-to-pay transactions. In our example screenshots above, you can see the page lists receipts from sites like Flipkart and Google Play. Some entries show the amount, while others only show the merchant and date. The page can also show the status of some orders, such as “Canceled” or “Refunded.”
Opening an individual receipt brings up more detail, including the merchant, date and time, item description, and order number, where available. There’s also a “View email receipt” button that opens the original Gmail message, as well as a trash icon to remove the receipt from Wallet. A confirmation dialog explains that removing it will delete the receipt and transaction info from Wallet, though it won’t delete the original email.
As ever with APK teardowns, there’s no guarantee this page will roll out publicly, and Google could change how it works before release. Still, if Wallet is going to keep pulling useful bits from Gmail, giving you one place to see and clear them out feels like the kind of no-nonsense upgrade the app could probably use.
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