Ahead of the availability of the Fire Phone, Amazon has launched its Google Wallet competitor for Android smartphones on to its Amazon App Store for Android as well as Google's Play store. Dubbed Amazon Wallet, the app offers some of the basics that Google Wallet offers, primarily the fact that it could be used to store your gift cards as well as loyalty and rewards cards. At this time, unlike Google Wallet, it doesn't look like Amazon Wallet is payment-ready.
That said, Amazon could potentially expand into the payments arena in the future if it chooses to, after all the company already has a lot of credit card information saved and already operates Amazon Payments for third-party merchants so this could be a natural extension. At this time, though, payments isn't on the books for Amazon Wallet.
And though the features may be similar to what Google offers, in my quick use of Amazon Wallet it seems that the Google app is more robust and feature-rich. Both apps will allow you to scan your card's front and rear so you can have an image to remind you which card is which, and both apps allow you to scan in bar codes so you don't have to sit there and manually enter a long string of numbers for each card you are trying to input. That said, Google Wallet will also auto-populate the name of the retailer or business for you and Google's database appears more complete than the Amazon one.
Have you tried Amazon Wallet? Are you using these wallet features from Amazon, Google, and others to make your wallet thinner?
Reader comments
Amazon Wallet for Android stores your gift and loyalty cards
Because we absolutely need another app to duplicate googles services.
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And I'm not even sure what problem Google Wallet is trying to solve. Did cash or credit cards suddenly go out of style?
No. Cash and Credit cards didn't go out of style, they became easier to steal or be used in a fraudulent way.
Purses or wallets with physical cards or cash get used right away when stolen. A password protected phone has its benefits.
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Yep. Just had that happen a few weeks ago.
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+1 thingy. Couldn't say it better myself. Add to that Amazon's always half baked and full of ads.
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It only duplicates a Google service if you're in the US.
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And I am
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It even reproduce the US-only feature of Google Wallet, because fuck Canada :|
Screw this. To many apps just to pay for things
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Not compatible with the LG G3
Posted via Android Central App on my T-Mobile LG G3
If amazon offered a payment service where you could buy things online at different retailer through Amazon and use amazon gift card credit I would do that. Love being able to get gift cards and buy stuff on amazon.
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If the Fire Phone becomes successful without Google services included, this will only encourage Samsung to push Tizen further.
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That is a HUGE if. Reception for this phone has been lukewarm at best so far.
It probably have to do something with the price and the ATT exclusivity.
I love Google wallet. I use it for all my loyalty cards and gift cards so I don't need to carry them around. I have my credit and debit cards in my Google wallet, but I still need to carry them because not all stores are capable of taking Google wallet payment. Not to mention when I put gas in my car. However, at all the stores that are capable of taking Google wallet payments I use it. It's much easier to pull my phone out of my holster than it is to get my wallet out of my back pocket and pull my card out. I do still get weird looks at the stores that take Wallet by both customers and cashiers. I also sometimes worry that a cashier will think for a moment I'm pulling out a gun rather than my phone because the holster is in the same spot a gun holster would be.
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I would use Google Wallet in Canada if I could, most of our gas pumps have NFC-payment already :(
Google has me hooked on their ecosystem.
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Google wallet and loop is a great combo. I like tap to pay but in my area I don't have good signal in the stores. But i don't need a signal with loop.
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Given that Google has been reticent regarding Google Wallet payments support outside the U.S., there is an opportunity for Amazon to capture some eager consumers in the mobile payments area, if they do decide to make their Wallet app support payments.
I prefer Google Wallet, but every time I read a post on Google+ about Wallet, there are dozens of people asking when it will be available in their non-U.S. country. Opportunity is certainly knocking. If Google doesn't hurry up and satisfy the masses, someone else will.
I have to agree, I think that especially Europe would be a strong place to build a customer base with a technology like this, if Amazon get in there now and promote the features quickly then a lot of potential customers will be so used to Amazons offering and wont want to change, if Google ever is to provide their wallet app services to that market... but it would be crazy to ignore the fact that many companies (and even government services) are doing away with physical cash payments and supporting NFC like technology to allow for modern alternatives. The bank card is coming up to its end of life as you can't track that so easily when its lost, and another nicety about the "digital wallet" is that you can have more control over the security level and don't find yourselves having to enter your pin number on that thing which is visible to everyone queuing behind you lol... so come on Amazon, offer some true competition at an international level!.
Waste! Unless it does tap and pay it's useless.
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