Google Play services reached version 26.35 on 7 September, and buried in the release notes is one line that matters if you still carry a plastic transit card: you can hold the card against the back of the phone and have it copied into Google Wallet, balance and all.
It works over NFC, the same chip the phone already uses to pay at a terminal. The card is read as it is, so there is no long number to type in and no operator to hunt down in a list. Google also redrew the success screen that appears once a card has been added.
What the notes do not say is which transit networks this covers, or which countries. Google named none of them.
The same update carries a second change: safety status now travels with a shared location through the location sharing interface.
The Play Store moved to 53.1 the same day, with three changes you can actually see — a short description of what an app does inside the similar-apps list, an indicator telling you whether an app is already installed on your other devices while you browse recommendations, and a new navigation bar across the store home pages.
Image: a phone held to a contactless payment terminal. It is a general photograph, not of Google Wallet. Photo by Isidora.ilic, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0 via Wikimedia Commons.
Source: Google System release notes — Google Play services 26.35 and Play Store 53.1, 7 September 2026.
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