Introducing the Save to Wallet APIs for Payment Cards and Offers

Google Wallet aspires to hold all the things you put in your physical wallet: credit and debit cards, coupons, loyalty cards, tickets, boarding passes, and more.  At Google I/O we demonstrated a developer-facing feature that helps us fulfill this vision: the Save to Wallet APIs.

The Save to Wallet APIs allow visitors to bank and merchant websites to save payment cards and offers to Google Wallet.

API for Payment Cards
The Save to Wallet API for Payment Cards enables banks to integrate any credit or signature debit card into Google Wallet in a relatively simple manner.  We’re providing issuing banks with two options: 1) a “no integration” option that allows banks to provide us card art, and co-market Google Wallet, or 2) a light integration option, which enables banks to push cards directly from their websites into Google Wallet, with user consent.  At Google I/O we demonstrated how Discover is working with Google on a concept that would enable Discover® cardmembers to save their cards to Google Wallet from the Account Center at discover.com.

We’re testing the Save to Wallet API for Payment Cards with a few other bank partners right now.  Banks interested in working with the API can request access here.

API for Offers
The Save to Wallet API for Offers enables merchants to publish offers that can be saved to Google Wallet from your desktop or mobile website.  These offers can then be redeemed by consumers using a mobile device either via SingleTap NFC at the point of sale, or by showing and scanning the offer during checkout.  Note that these offers are actually not created by Google, but are instead created by 3rd parties, e.g. merchants or developers.

The benefit of the API to the merchant is that your website visitors can easily save an offer from your site so that they have it with them when they visit your store.  Google Wallet will also remind your customers to use your offers before they expire, helping you get sales you may not otherwise.

If you’re a merchant or developer interested in the Save to Wallet API for Offers, you can learn more here.

There’s a lot more in store for Google Wallet, so stay tuned on our +Page.


Posted by Robin Dua, Head of Product Management, Consumer Payments and Wallet