I use Google Wallet every day, but these missing features still annoy me

Over the past few years, Google Wallet has evolved into more than just another payment app. It can store everything from your credit and debit cards to loyalty programs, boarding passes, gym memberships, and even digital IDs in select regions.

For many of us, it’s become the go-to app for contactless payments and pass management.

Google Wallet gets a lot right, but if it’s going to live up to its potential as a true all-in-one wallet, there are still a few important features missing.

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By  Hagop Kavafian

The infinite scroll problem

One of the most noticeable frustrations with Google Wallet is the list interface.

If you have 20+ loyalty cards, multiple credit cards, transit passes, and event tickets, scrolling through them all can feel endless.

There’s still no real way to organize your items manually. You can’t group travel-related passes, separate payment methods from loyalty cards, or create folders for different use cases.

Imagine a “Travel” folder containing your boarding passes, hotel keys, and rental car QR codes, or a “Groceries” folder for all your loyalty cards.

Whether it’s folders, smart categories, or even basic pinning options, Google Wallet needs a way to help users manage everything they store in it.

As the app becomes more powerful, its interface is starting to feel increasingly crowded.

Wallet’s quick access view feels too limited

Launching Wallet from a Google Pixel or newer Android device is convenient, typically via a double-press of the power button or lock screen shortcut.

The problem is that this quick access view is inflexible. By default, it launches the Wallet interface, and there’s no way to customize the overlay to show the cards or passes you use most frequently.

It becomes noticeable in everyday situations. When you’re at a metro gate or a store checkout, speed matters. Having to open the full app and scroll through your passes defeats the purpose of a quick access shortcut.

What’s missing is the ability to choose what appears in that initial view. Even allowing users to pin a few frequently used cards or passes would make a big difference.

Sending money still isn’t part of the Wallet experience

For an app that aims to replace your physical wallet, Google Wallet has a surprising omission. Sending money to other people isn’t really part of the experience.

Earlier, Google Pay handled both contactless payments and peer-to-peer (P2P) transfers in a single app. But as Google shifted its strategy and repositioned Google Wallet as the primary app for cards and passes, P2P payments were no longer part of that experience.

Today, Wallet itself doesn’t support sending money, and the feature has effectively been split off. In select countries like Singapore and India, you can still use Google Pay for P2P payments, but that exists as a separate app and system rather than something built into Wallet.

Wallet focuses heavily on storing cards, passes, and enabling tap-to-pay, but the simple act of paying a friend has been left out of that core experience.

Instead of a unified approach, users are often pushed toward separate apps or services, which breaks the flow.

The app lacks a straightforward, built-in way to handle person-to-person payments. A simple Send button or contact-based transfers would make Wallet feel more complete.

Fragmented transaction history

I’m still surprised that Google Wallet doesn’t offer a truly unified view of my spending.

Currently, transaction history stays tied to individual cards. To check recent payments, you must open each card separately and scroll through its activity.

That might work if you only use one payment method, but it quickly becomes inconvenient if you switch between multiple cards.

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The problem is more evident when using multiple devices. Payments made through a smartwatch or another device don’t always appear alongside your phone activity, which breaks the idea of having a single, reliable record of transactions.

What makes this more frustrating is that Google already offers a better version of this on the web. You can access your full transaction history from the Google Wallet website, making it much easier to find specific purchases. That experience isn’t available on the mobile app yet.

What’s missing is a centralized, searchable activity feed that displays every tap-to-pay transaction in one place, regardless of which card or device you used. Ideally, you’d be able to search by merchant, filter by date, and scan your recent spending without digging through multiple menus.

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Google Wallet still feels incomplete

Google Wallet has come a long way from being just a place to store your cards and passes.

It is increasingly capable of handling everything from payments to passes and digital IDs. For many people, it already replaces the need to carry a physical wallet.

However, the more you use it, the more its limitations become apparent. The lack of better organization, a truly unified transaction history, customizable quick access, and built-in person-to-person payments all make the experience feel less polished than it could be.

If Google addresses these gaps, Wallet could genuinely replace your physical wallet.