Google Pay may become Google Wallet yet again, complete with a fresh, new icon

Two years ago, the new “Google Pay” was announced, and as a direct result, Google Wallet was converted into Google Pay Send on the web (the mobile app still exists) – and while you can no longer add money to the account with a debit card or bank account, it’s become a P2P payment portal that quickly lost all of its functionality since then.

Sadly, the new Google Pay abandoned 400,000 waitlist members who signed up for a Plex account, and after backing out of its strategy to become the end-all-be-all of your bank account, it hired a former PayPal executive to reassess its future plans. After having much success in India and other countries with Wallet replacing, well, many people’s actual wallets, it seems Google wants to return to its roots and expand on that original vision.

With that, Wallet now has a brand spanking new logo (as seen somewhere by 9to5Google) that’s more in line with Google’s colors and playful style. It consists of a blue wallet with a red, yellow, and green card protruding from the top. Instead of its previous “W” design, this one actually looks like that which it represents.

At this time, it’s unclear what Google specifically has planned for Wallet, but one thing is certain – this new logo signals the start of some initiative to make it a comprehensive replacement for that bulky piece of leather in your back pocket (also, don’t sit on your wallet, it’s bad for your spine!)

What I’m failing to see is how Wallet could come back as a card holder among other things while the more popular Google Pay revamp already does all of this and more. Is Google planning to separate your loyalty cards from your Tap to pay debit and credit cards?

What’s more likely to happen though is that Google will replace Pay’s logo with the new Wallet design, and Google Pay may yet again become “Google Wallet”. While this is a much more user-friendly nomenclature, it sure as hell is confusing to the average consumer (and to the masses) that the company keeps jumping ship on not only its strategy for the service but also its naming.

This could have something to do with the fact that it hasn’t quite caught up to Apple Pay yet, but I hope that this time, they’re sure of themselves so it can begin to gain more traction than ever instead of confusing everyone even further.

If it simply separates loyalty cards from payment options, would this strategy be a worthwhile investment, or would it cause more fragmentation and confusion in the user experience? Either way, that’s semi-rhetorical, but until we find out more, you can gawk at the new logo above and comment with your guesses!