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Google Pay can now watch Gmail inboxes and add any cards, passes and coupons it finds
INTEGRATION: Google Pay can now watch Gmail inboxes and add any cards, passes and coupons it finds

Google has begun rolling out a new feature that scans a Gmail user’s inbox and then automatically adds any coupons, loyalty cards, airline boarding passes and movie tickets that it finds to their Google Pay wallet.

The feature, which began rolling out this week, is available on an opt-in basis from within a user’s Google Pay for Android app[1]. To enable it, users simply go to Settings > General > Gmail imports to switch the feature on.

The service appears to work as a live sync between Google Pay and Gmail, as Google warns that items added to Google Pay from Gmail will be removed if the user deletes the original email.

“From what we can tell, you do need Google Pay v2.86 or higher to see this toggle,” 9to5Google reports[2].

“Once enabled, Google Pay will look at your Gmail account to pull over whatever data it can. For me, the setting immediately pulled my American Airlines AAdvantage miles, a Reward Certificate from Best Buy, and some Yes2You Rewards points from Kohl’s.”

Not all tickets, cards and coupons will be automatically added to Google Pay, however, and it looks as though issuers will need to embed structured data in their emails to enable the feature.

Issuers can already offer recipients buttons in emails to manually add loyalty cards, passes and coupons to Google Pay by adding special markup[3] to their messages before sending them.

References

  1. ^ Google Pay for Android app (play.google.com)
  2. ^ 9to5Google reports (9to5google.com)
  3. ^ adding special markup (developers.google.com)

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