According to a report Tuesday (Oct. 27) from the website Android Authority, the new Google Wallet capability would let travelers make QR-code-based payments overseas using the Alipay Plus network.
The report is based on code found within a recent update to the Android application, indicating that Google Wallet is preparing an “Overseas QR payments” setting designed to activate automatically when users travel to supported international destinations.
According to the support page, the feature is designed to turn on automatically when the device detects it is located in a covered region.
The payment option connects Google Wallet to Alipay Plus (Alipay+), an international cross-border payment platform that links with regional merchant payment systems in Southeast Asia. Alipay Plus is the international counterpart to China’s domestic Alipay wallet.
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While Alipay Plus supports payment networks across multiple Southeast Asian countries, Google’s support documentation so far lists only one destination, according to the report, saying the feature works in “any of the supported destinations listed above,” but explicitly names only Singapore.
However, Android Authority said support could eventually encompass Alipay Plus networks in other regional markets such as Malaysia, Indonesia and the Philippines.
The report noted that Google has not yet issued a formal announcement or released a timeline for the feature. PYMNTS has contacted Google for comment but has not yet received a reply.
In other digital wallet news, recent PYMNTS Intelligence research shows that merchants could hold onto more customers by accepting the digital wallets those buyers already use, with “wallet gaps” putting around 36 million U.S. consumers in danger of walking away.
This finding comes from “The Hidden Cost of Checkout Gaps: What 56 Million Abandoned Carts Mean for U.S. Merchants and How Agentic AI is Changing What Comes Next,” a PYMNTS Intelligence report produced in partnership with PayPal.
Research from that report showed that 21% of consumers abandoned an online cart in the prior 30 days because their preferred payment method wasn’t available.
“For merchants, adding payment choices offers a practical opportunity to complete purchases shoppers had already decided to make,” PYMNTS wrote last week. “A checkout without the preferred wallet is like a store with the right merchandise but a locked door at the register.”
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