I also very much like my Pixel 6a, definitely my favorite Pixel (out of the 1, 3, 4a, and 6 I’ve owned previously). Their regular non-a lineup is too big and too expensive for what they offer. However, the new Pixel 8 getting updates until 2030 is a hell of a deal too. If Google matches the 7 year update guarantee on the 8a that would kind of wipe out the competition.
Android Pay is overrated anyways, it gives Google insight into all your purchases. The only way to do digital wallets correctly is Apple Wallet, otherwise they should be avoided altogether.
Luckily you should only have to wait until next spring for a USB-C equipped SE. Gotta agree that the current SE is looking like a pretty terrible value with the knowledge that Lightning is officially dead.
Google Pay is connected to your Google account and actually does share all payment info with Google. Android Pay to my understanding does not. However only a few banks have implementations for this.
Android Pay is Google Pay, and yes it is linked to Google. Or it might be Google Wallet now, their documentation refers to both. Whatever they’re calling it now, it’s all the same cloud technology.
I know that video from you. And it is good. But i think you still missed out on the option for banks to make their own consctless payment options on Android.
Not sure if that is called android pay or not. But afaik that is not linked to Google at all.
Misconceptions? This is literally misinformation that harms the project. Saying that you can’t do banking on GrapheneOS and that it’s not good for a daily driver, etc is incorrect and might turn away potential users from using GrapheneOS which is harmful. I personally do my banking on a GrapheneOS device without any problems whatsoever, only a handful of banking apps doesn’t work, and you can check that too.
Yes, my banking app offers contactless payments too, but it requires biometrics to be enabled, which is fine to me. Last time I checked it even worked without Google Play Services. This is a superior implementation to Google Pay.
(But when you think about it, is it really that hard to use contactless payments with a card instead of a phone? Like seriously.)
At first I considered getting something below Pixel 6 series because of Snapdragon SoCs. Tensor SoC on Pixel 6 series is just a piece of… rubbish. I still support the decision for Google to have their own silicon, but it will take time for it to catch up in terms of performance, efficiency, etc.
And if we are going down this thought path, in my eyes ‘contactless’ payments in general are at best a minor convenience. Maybe you save a few seconds, maybe not depending on how many seconds you fumble around finding the right spot to tap. It is not a factor I would waste much thought on.
Though does seem to have some misconceptions about GOS. (banking comment)
Misconceptions? This is literally misinformation that harms the project. Saying that you can’t do banking on GrapheneOS and that it’s not good for a daily driver, etc is incorrect and might turn away potential users from using GrapheneOS which is harmful
As is often the case, the answer is messier and less convenient than a simple simple black and white answer. I think the GrapheneOS usage guide gives a fairly balanced overview
I actually have a story about one of my banking apps not working on GrapheneOS.
There was one crucial banking app that didn’t work for me because GrapheneOS isn’t a Google certified OS. So I emailed that banking team and asked that they forward it to the developers. I explained the situation, etc and linked them to this: Attestation compatibility guide | Articles | GrapheneOS
I don’t know what they did, but now that app works perfectly fine on GrapheneOS without any issues whatsoever. This is just an example of:
Definitely not necessary but I love the convenience. Honestly makes me consider an iphone sometimes as it would support more banks. But then i think again of how copying and pasting works on iOS and I am quickly cured.
I value other people’s time, so just being able to pay for everything in 1–2 seconds with just touching my card to make a payment is important. It saves my and other people’s time.
Oh, it is true that an Android device can emulate a smart card. I’m not sure if this would allow a third-party to interface with an EMV contactless payment terminal though, and I’ve never seen this used for any form of contactless payment in the USA. Do you know of any banks which do have NFC payments built into their Android app as opposed to Google Wallet?
The backend provider Swedbank uses has a page on this topic too:
TIL - that’s a big advantage if your bank is able to cut out the middleman on Android, but yeah, it also seems very uncommon from what I can tell.
Also, it’s less about the time saving and more about not having to carry around additional things (a wallet) all the time, for me anyways. Anything I can reduce is nice.
I would say that most major banks in the EU have done it themselves. This mostly due to the fact that they did this before Google Pay was a thing.
I was one of the first users in a pilot program, that used modified simcards for it. Later they moved to the opened up NFC contactless options. Later Google Pay and Apple Pay launched in some countries. While I could pay for quite a while already then Apple Pay launched in Europe too.
I would say that Google Pay is only used ny Neobanks in the EU and some banks that are very slow at adopting technology and never really got to it beforehand. The vast majority at least in my country has their own contactless options.
Well if you have a digital wallet which generates tokens on-device (Apple Wallet), or apparently a banking app on Android which communicates directly with your bank instead of passing through Google/Samsung, both of those situations should be basically indistinguishable from using a regular card. I don’t see how using a physical card would create additional compartmentalization.
The virtual cards are more secure though. Cuz they use rotation of identifiers. It’s more a risk for the bank than for the customer (at least under ECB regulations)
