Google Wallet will no longer be supported on old Android versions
Google Wallet will no longer be supported on old Android versions (photo: Unsplash)
Starting next month, Google is tightening the minimum requirements for Google Wallet to work on Android and Wear OS devices. So far, the service supports smartphones with Android 7.0 Nougat or later versions installed, reports 9to5Google.
Why smartphone payments will be unavailable
According to a new support document, "Google Wallet will require Android 9 or higher on your phone and Wear OS 2.x or higher on your smartwatch." Google Wallet also informs that security updates will not be available for Android 9 and below.
"To help keep Wallet features such as tap to pay transactions more secure, we must be able to send security updates to your device," the company said.
On another help page, which has not yet been updated, Android 7.0 is listed as a mandatory requirement. When Google Wallet was released in 2022, to replace the Google Pay app, Android 5.0 was listed as a requirement.
Thus, it will affect Android Nougat (2016: 7.0, 7.1) and Oreo (2017: 8.0, 8.1) users. According to Android Studio, the cumulative distribution of Android 9 Pie (as of October 2023) is 86.4 percent.
Google is also raising the minimum requirements for the Google Wallet app for Wear OS. Now it can only run on Wear OS 2.x or later versions of the operating system.
Fortunately, all Samsung Galaxy Watch models with Wear OS run on Wear OS 4. Thus, this change will not affect devices of this brand.
