Particle.news
Download on the App Store
4 ARTICLES
·
last wk.

Google Wallet Gains Pixel Overlay and Material 3 Tap-to-Pay Animation

The rollout on Wallet v25.31 with matching Play services betas remains limited to a small group of Pixel users.

Image
Image
Image

Overview

  • Pixel phones running Android 16 can trigger the new Google Wallet overlay by double-pressing the power button.
  • The overlay appears above the current screen with a blurred background, showing an NFC “Hold to reader” animation, a card carousel, and an “Open Wallet” shortcut.
  • Accessing Wallet via this gesture is intended to simplify selecting non-default payment cards and speed return to the previous activity after payment.
  • Separately, Wallet’s NFC tap-to-pay flow and homepage now feature a Material 3 Expressive redesign with a translucent backdrop and a detailed success animation.
  • Both the pixel-specific overlay and the Material 3 updates have begun staging to select users but are not yet widely available.