More Transit Choices Around the World?
A Google blog post says that soon, people in the U.S. will be able to use their passports to make digital IDs that can be used at some TSA checks. This will make traveling within the U.S. easier. The service also adds more support for state-issued IDs and prepaid commuter benefit cards. It also plans to add more transit choices around the world.
U.S. passports can be used as digital IDs at some TSA checkpoints for internal travel, but they don’t replace physical IDs. It aims to make things run more smoothly at airports.
The process of making this digital ID is easy. People can “create an ID pass with your U.S. passport” in the Google Wallet tool for their phones. They can use the app to learn how to scan the security chip in their cards. A customer will have to make a short video of themselves to prove who they are. When it’s done, Google Wallet will process the information and let users know when their digital ID pass is ready to use. This usually only takes a few minutes. Earlier this year, the U.S. State Department said it would be beta testing a program that lets people who want to journey renew their passports online.
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Wendy Cheng, Vice President and General Manager of Google Wallet, wrote in a blog post about the new features, “People are looking for ways to digitize everyday items—with a digital ID being one of the top requests.” It has been possible to save some state-issued digital IDs to Wallet since the beginning of the year. We’ll soon start beta testing a new type of digital ID in Google Wallet. This will let more people in more places make and store a digital ID.
Cheng wrote that Google Wallet has seen a lot of growth in transit use. In the last 18 months, the number of people using it to move has doubled. The service now works with more transit cards around the world, such as prepaid passenger benefit cards in the US and public transit tickets in many other countries. Automatic ticket imports from Gmail and live train progress updates are some of the new features that have been added to make commuting better.
To make the whole experience better for users, Google has added web access to passes at wallet.google.com and sent alerts when passes are changed. Cheng said that the company is still working with partners around the world to add more features to Google Wallet so that it can meet all of your digital needs in a variety of settings and situations. These improvements show that Google is serious about digitizing everyday things and making things easier for users while still putting security and privacy first.
Internationally, Google Wallet Is Working With a Number of Payment and Travel Companies
Internationally, Google Wallet is working with a number of payment and travel companies to add more ways to pay with your phone. Hamburg, Germany workers can now save their public transit tickets in Google Wallet. Soon, Taiwanese iPASSCard users will be able to do the same, and more Hong Kong Octopus Card users will be able to do the same. Over 500,000 people in Germany already store their Deutschlandticket in Google Wallet. The company has also added private ticketing through Motics to protect against copying and tampering.
To make commuting even easier, Google Wallet now instantly imports tickets from booking confirmations sent to Gmail. This makes it easy to get to your tickets when you need them. Also, soon there will be a feature that lets users see live updates on the state of their train right from their ticket in Wallet. This will give them access to tickets for future rides and real-time information on train schedules and delays.
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