Summary
- Google Wallet for Wear OS now supports boarding passes, allowing users to access them directly from their smartwatch.
- The feature is available on watches running Wear OS 3.5 and newer versions, with a notification alerting users of its availability prior to a flight.
- The Wallet app for Android also supports other transit passes, making it convenient for frequent fliers and users of Clipper cards and SmartTrip.
Google has been on a roll through 2023, adding features and expanding support for available options on Google Wallet. In the last year alone, we saw support for government-issued ID cards expand to more states in the US. Google also made flight and event boarding passes shareable in the Wallet app. Now, the equivalent app for Wear OS is picking up support for boarding passes, so you don’t need to whip out your phone while traveling.
The Google Wallet app for Wear OS was always designed to take over functionality from the mobile app, making it easier to enter places requiring access cards and making contactless payments. However, new features take some time to show up on the app for your Wear OS wearable. Google isn’t very quick to add new features, partly because of the sheer number of apps it has to maintain — even National Insurance number support in the UK took half a year to roll out.
Now, people with Wear OS watches can finally use the Google wallet app on their wrist to access boarding passes for flights (via 9to5Google). Some people report seeing this convenience roll out in December, but a wider rollout seems to be underway, with another report coming in from a Pixel Watch 2 user.
Effectively, this new Wallet feature should be available on all phones running Wear OS 3.5 and newer versions. A notification should alert you of its availability. Once it is set up, your Wallet app will display a notification mentioning your upcoming flight. Tapping the View pass button will open the QR code you can scan at the gate to board your flight.
This feature makes flights more convenient to board if you have a Wear OS smartwatch. Even otherwise, boarding passes are available on the Wallet app for Android, alongside a host of other features. As we stated earlier, the mobile app even allows sharing passes your contacts may need. While frequent fliers would enjoy this feature the most, Google Wallet also supports other transit passes, like Clipper cards in San Francisco and SmartTrip in Washington, DC on your phone and Wear OS smartwatch.
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