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10 hours ago
Google Wallet is easily one of the most useful and, thus, loved apps in the Android ecosystem. It stores payment-related cards, transit passes, flight and train tickets, and virtually everything else. The Wallet app’s homepage was recently overhauled with a cleaner design centered on your most-used passes, and it’s now gaining a central Android feature that was promised last year.
Google is expanding support for Android’s Live Updates to the Wallet app. 9to5Google has now spotted that, with this change, Google Wallet can now show the completion status of your flights via a persistent notification and progress bar. This could be a good way to track how far along you are in the flight (given it has Wi-Fi on board) or to do the same for a friend or loved one.
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As intended with Android’s Live Updates, the notification is visible both on the lock screen, the notification shade, and on the always-on display (AOD). When you’re using the phone otherwise, the update is also minimized into a smaller pill-shaped area on the status bar at the top-left corner of the screen.
Google Wallet’s Live Updates for flights also complement its existing feature that automatically pulls your flight tickets from Gmail and reminds you to check in a few hours before the flight. Google Wallet’s Nearby Pass functionality also makes the ticket more accessible when it determines you’re arriving at the airport.
It’s possible the update may have started rolling out to some users early. My colleague Rita El Khoury recently spotted it on her Pixel, with Google Wallet showing details about their flight using Live Updates. As you can see, Live Updates also show her flight’s progress mid-air, since she had access to Wi-Fi on the plane.
While Google Wallet also notes details such as any gate changes or the number of your luggage belt, these are not reflected through Live Updates yet, though it would be nice to have them.
In addition to flight tickets, Live Updates should also display the progress of your train rides and other live “events.” To make sure you get the feature on your phone, ensure you’re running the latest version of Google Wallet, either directly or by updating Google Play services.
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