Since then, he has mostly been faithful to the Google phone lineup, though these days, he is also carrying an iPhone in addition to his Pixel 6. After running into connectivity problems with the HTC One S, he quickly switched to a Nexus 4, which he considers his true first Android phone. His first steps into the Android world were plagued by issues. He isn't shy to dig into technical backgrounds and the nitty-gritty developer details, either. This background gives him a unique perspective on the ever-evolving world of technology and its implications on society. Before joining Android Police, Manuel studied Media and Culture studies in Düsseldorf, finishing his university 'career' with a master's degree. He focuses on Android, Chrome, and other software Google products - the core of Android Police’s coverage. Eventually allowing it to store gift cards, tickets, membership cards and more.Manuel Vonau joined Android Police as a freelancer in 2019 and has worked his way up to become the publication's Google Editor. In supported regions, both peer-to-peer payments and digital wallet functionality were folded into the same app.Īs we mentioned earlier, in recent years, Google has been adding more and more functionality to Google Pay. In 2018, Google merged its Google Wallet and Android Pay services, bringing everything under the moniker of Google Pay. Google Wallet continued to exist as a peer-to-peer money-sending app, much like Google Pay is today (confused enough yet?). Secondly, it was much easier to use, it didn't require finding the app and entering a pin, users could simply unlock their phone and place it over the reader to pay. There were two key differentiators with Android Pay, firstly it was built-in to Android so you didn't have to download an additional app. Google Wallet wasn't used by many people and was initially restricted to the Google Nexus phone.Īfter about four years, Google Wallet was replaced by Android Pay. At the time, contactless payments were a new phenomenon, and NFC was yet to be widely adopted by the Android phone market.

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