Digital wallet apps have fundamentally changed how people pay for daily needs, whether it's buying coffee, groceries, or fueling their car. Another especially useful feature of digital wallet apps, like Google Wallet, is how simple it makes paying for public transit. In many parts of the world, public transit systems have adopted support for digital payment methods such as Google Wallet, Apple Wallet, and Samsung Wallet, letting users tap to pay with their phone instead of using a physical prepaid transit card.
This new feature allows Google Wallet users to assign a specific card in their wallet for paying for public transit, and they can use that card to pay at transit terminals without unlocking their phone. So, if you're in a rush heading to the subway, you won't have to unlock your phone with a PIN or biometric authentication to tap on -- you can just tap on with your Express Transit Card and be on your way.
According to the description of the Express Transit Card feature in Google Wallet, it will only work "when you hold your device near a supported transit reader." So, if you're concerned about your Express Transit Card being used for other purchases without unlocking your phone, it will only work at public transit terminals that support Google Wallet.
Apple and Samsung already offer a wallet feature like this
Google copied Apple's feature, including the name
If Google Wallet's new Express Transit Card feature sounds familiar, it's probably because Apple Wallet and Samsung Wallet already offer almost the exact same feature.
In the case of Apple Wallet, Google has directly copied the name of its new transit feature from them. Apple Wallet already offers a feature called "Express Transit Card" that lets you pay for transit without unlocking your iPhone by selecting a card in your Apple Wallet as your Express Transit Card, the exact same thing the upcoming Google Wallet feature does.
Samsung Wallet, on the other hand, refers to its transit feature as "Transit card," allowing you to select a card in your Samsung Wallet to use for transit without unlocking your phone, even when the screen is off.
It's worth noting that Google Wallet already has a feature for public transit payments that allows you to turn off verification, like a PIN or biometrics, which can be found in the Google Wallet app under Settings > Verification settings > Transit payments. However, the key difference with this new Express Transit Card feature is that you can now designate a specific card in your Google Wallet for all future public transit payments.
As for when the new Express Transit Card feature will be available for everyone in Google Wallet, that is currently unclear. It was only discovered by Android Authority during an APK Teardown and has not been officially announced by Google yet. Therefore, it could still be a few weeks or months before Google releases it. However, once it is available, you can find it in the Google Wallet app under Settings > Express Transit Card.