- Android 16 introduced real-time notifications called Live Updates
- These alerts will soon be supported by Google Wallet
- You’ll get easier access to information on journeys you’re taking
Android 16 introduced Live Updates, a new kind of real-time notification to keep you updated on sports scores, travel information, and deliveries, much like Live Activities in iOS – and now Google Wallet is being updated to support the feature.
As outlined in the latest release notes (spotted by 9to5Google), Google Wallet will now show Live Updates for “key travel journeys that include flights, train trips, and events”. Note though that this is part of a Google Play services update, and these can take a few weeks or even months to reach everyone.
To use this feature you’ll need to have some kind of ticket stored in your Google Wallet, such as a boarding pass for a flight or a ticket for a train journey. The app will then pull in the necessary real-time information from the ticket.
It’s likely to be useful for a lot of users. You might see an update showing the progress of your flight as it gets towards its destination, for example, or an alert about a delay to your train – but we haven’t seen this in action yet, so we’re not certain what kind of notifications might show up.
Slow adoption
As is normally the case, it’s taking some time for the various apps that Google makes for Android to make use of all the different features enabled by Android 16. It was only recently that Google Wallet got the latest Material 3 Expressive redesign, for example.
The other updates to Google Wallet with this latest Google Play services patch let you add cards through supported issuer apps without entering your details again – for a more seamless transfer – and notifications when loyalty passes are imported from Gmail (on Android 12 or later).
As for Live Updates, app developers haven’t been in a huge rush to add support for the feature. It is at least enabled on Google Maps, where it gives you a better idea of navigation directions when you’re busy in other apps or have your phone locked.
Let’s hope these persistent notifications are more widely adopted in the future, as they do have the potential to save time and add convenience. Android has long been able to show live information in a notification of course, but Live Updates makes these alerts more obvious across Android.
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