I tried the redesigned Google Wallet app, and it fixes my 2 biggest complaints

It’s a big deal whenever Google redesigns one of its Android apps, and that’s especially true for an app as big as Google Wallet. We’ve been tracking evidence of a major Google Wallet update since as early as last September, and after months of waiting, it’s finally live.

Google began rolling out its Wallet redesign on April 10, and after using it on my Pixel 10a for about a day, I can confirm that the new design was worth the wait. Here’s what it looks like in action.

What I love about the redesigned Google Wallet

What makes this updated Google Wallet so great centers on two big changes to passes. Previously, passes appeared as long rectangles in a vertically scrolling list. Additionally, while you were free to rearrange the order of your passes, every pass added to Google Wallet was displayed here.

With the new Google Wallet UI, there’s finally a solution for both of these things.

First off, passes are now displayed as a small square. The same amount of space that one pass previously occupied now fits two passes, meaning you can see more of them on your screen at once. That alone is a big win, and if you ask me, it’s a lot more visually pleasing, too. You’re seeing the exact same amount of pass info on the home screen, just more of it. It’s great.

The second big thing about this redesign is that you can now pick and choose what passes you see every time you open the Wallet app. Instead of showing your entire pass library, the redesign only shows the passes you’ve starred. If you have 10 passes in your Google Wallet but only want to see five on the home page, you can now do that.

You can still press and hold a pass to change its position, and tapping a pass still shows its barcode/QR code and full info. These are the same passes you know and love, just displayed much better than before.

Tapping the View more button takes you to a brand new page. At the top is a list of all transactions across your payment cards, and below that is your full collection of passes, which you can see by tapping View more passes. This is also where you can control which passes appear on your home screen; starred passes do, un-starred passes don’t. It’s that simple.

Something else I love about this page is the search bar at the top. You can use this to search for transactions, payment cards, and passes. As a new homeowner, I’ve been shopping at Home Depot a lot over the last month and have used different cards at checkout. Searching for “Home Depot” and seeing all those transactions, regardless of which card I used, is fantastic.

It’s not perfect, but it’s almost there

If it wasn’t clear by now, I’m really happy with this latest Google Wallet redesign. It’s such a big improvement over the previous version, and I really don’t think there’s any arguing about that. However, there are a couple of further changes I’d love to see.

As it stands, viewing your full pass list is a two-step process: tap the View more button, scroll down the page, and tap View more passes. It’s not the end of the world, but it’s a little clunky. I’d much rather there be a “View all passes” button at the bottom of your starred passes. This would still let you control which passes appear on the home screen while giving you faster access to your full pass list.

Additionally, I also wish there were a search bar shortcut directly on the Wallet home screen, rather than being hidden behind the View more button. Again, it’s not a deal-breaker, but it feels unnecessarily complicated in its current execution.

And that’s pretty much it. Google Wallet is one of my most-used Google apps, and this update is exactly what I’ve been waiting for.