In the end, Google shuts down the GPay app and P2P payments in the US after a serious alert period. It was already announced back in February that “GPay” is no longer available in the US.
Back in 2020, Google announced the redesigned Google Pay to enhance the experience by making money simple, secure, and convenient, with plans for a mobile-first bank account that never came to fruition. Since June 4th onwards, the GPay app running on Android phones in the US has automatically signed out all users.
Users who try to log back into GPay after June 4th will receive a message alerting them that the app is no longer available in the US. Noticeably, users can still use contactless payments with Google Wallet. Apart from this, Google also no longer offers peer-to-peer payments in the US. Users can use the Google Play website to check the detailed metrics and transfer the balance they have received or rewards to a bank account after June.
The reason behind this appears to be that the focus is now on Google Wallet and digitizing everything in their physical wallet. The brand decided to redesign to make the app revolve around your interaction with others. For instance, now you could track your bank accounts and credit cards straight forward within the Insights tab, and the app would prominently showcase deals and cashback offers.
Back in November 2022, at the announcement, co-branded checking and saving “Plex Accounts” were also previewed. Google collaborated with banks and credit unions, most notably Citi. There would have been a physical card. Savings and the option to create customizable goals were the other big tentpoles. There’s one option that would have been to “round up transfers” on all purchases to help meet the goal.
Initially, Plex was scheduled to debut in 2021, but later Google announced that in October the project was canceled. This was despite a waitlist of 400,000 people. Reportedly, Google was shifting to “delivering digital enablement for banks and other financial services providers rather than us serving as the provider of these services.”
