Google is screwing up yet another service. This shouldn't be a surprise, but this one's the very unbroken Google Pay.
Google+ was social media, which is generally highly problematic, so I understood but lamented that cancellation. Google Reader should have just switched to a light pay subscription plan and left alone. You all can research Google's awful messaging platform history if you like. Cloud Print was extremely useful, and also extremely cancelled. Google Music moving to YouTube Music was a disaster from migration and usability loss standpoint, but more understandable (YouTube and Google double-billed many users for that one).
Google Pay really works well as it is for most of the world, and was even baked into Google's flagship Pixel phones' Android functionality, so this is more of a surprise than most Google service changes.
Ars Technica, an outstanding tech news and commentary source that deserves more subscriptions, has a great explainer about the Google Pay changes. I'll reiterate the main point: There's no reward for this Google Pay change, just drawbacks for both existing and future users.
There's no migration path from old Google Pay to new Google Pay because the new version uses your phone carrier's SMS number for authentication rather than your Google account. Everyone's a new user to the new Google Pay.
No more Google Pay web interface. Previous history, financial account information, payment contacts, and even some basic functionality, are gone. For me, starting Google Pay from scratch isn't that bad, aside from losing payment history, but I could see businesses and some other users who rely on the existing Google Pay facing a real problem with this changeover.
In addition to a footwear-to-the-groin complete restart, the new Google Pay will charge to pull money from debit cards. This previously-free change alone has me looking at other possible contactless payment methods.
I'm also bothered by the move from Google account to carrier SMS for unique identification. SMS is less secure than a Google account. This alone should be incentive for a security giant like Google to not go this route. But I also have a special edge case with my phone numbers that makes this Google Pay move more complicated.
My primary phone number is a Google Voice phone number. As a result, I have two valid SMS numbers for my phone. My Google Voice number is currently configured to forward voice and SMS to my carrier number. I've used the Google Voice phone number over two cell phone carriers. It's been rather great.
However, the new Google Pay will supposedly only work with the phone carrier number, which means Google Pay usage ties me to my current phone carrier. I don't know what Google Pay's migration from phone number to phone number might be. Bake your payment solution authentication into your Google Voice app, Google. Sheesh.
Adding an alternate authentication method besides a Google account would expand Google Pay's potential user base, but completely detaching Google Pay from Google accounts is a terrible, limiting move.
I like Ars Technica's opinion that Google's top management probably feels that what's working in India should work for the rest of the world. As much as I can understand that logic from a business process standpoint, financial services and usage still vary wildly worldwide. One financial services shoe definitely does not fit all. Any worldwide company with a few years of experience should know this.
Google does seem to have crapping on its users once in a while as a primary goal, though. I still use them because they do excel at a lot of things, but it's getting harder to justify not pulling further away. Maybe they'll change or cancel enough of their services that I'll have migrated completely away in a few years.
Then again, none of the big services make me entirely happy across the board. I'm much less satisfied with most of them than I used to be. But I'm trying to simplify my online presence. That dynamic will fuel multiple discussions for other times.
For now, thanks for yet another unnecessary change that's making me consider non-Google services, Google. Cheers.
Google+ was social media, which is generally highly problematic, so I understood but lamented that cancellation. Google Reader should have just switched to a light pay subscription plan and left alone. You all can research Google's awful messaging platform history if you like. Cloud Print was extremely useful, and also extremely cancelled. Google Music moving to YouTube Music was a disaster from migration and usability loss standpoint, but more understandable (YouTube and Google double-billed many users for that one).
Google Pay really works well as it is for most of the world, and was even baked into Google's flagship Pixel phones' Android functionality, so this is more of a surprise than most Google service changes.
Ars Technica, an outstanding tech news and commentary source that deserves more subscriptions, has a great explainer about the Google Pay changes. I'll reiterate the main point: There's no reward for this Google Pay change, just drawbacks for both existing and future users.
There's no migration path from old Google Pay to new Google Pay because the new version uses your phone carrier's SMS number for authentication rather than your Google account. Everyone's a new user to the new Google Pay.
No more Google Pay web interface. Previous history, financial account information, payment contacts, and even some basic functionality, are gone. For me, starting Google Pay from scratch isn't that bad, aside from losing payment history, but I could see businesses and some other users who rely on the existing Google Pay facing a real problem with this changeover.
In addition to a footwear-to-the-groin complete restart, the new Google Pay will charge to pull money from debit cards. This previously-free change alone has me looking at other possible contactless payment methods.
I'm also bothered by the move from Google account to carrier SMS for unique identification. SMS is less secure than a Google account. This alone should be incentive for a security giant like Google to not go this route. But I also have a special edge case with my phone numbers that makes this Google Pay move more complicated.
My primary phone number is a Google Voice phone number. As a result, I have two valid SMS numbers for my phone. My Google Voice number is currently configured to forward voice and SMS to my carrier number. I've used the Google Voice phone number over two cell phone carriers. It's been rather great.
However, the new Google Pay will supposedly only work with the phone carrier number, which means Google Pay usage ties me to my current phone carrier. I don't know what Google Pay's migration from phone number to phone number might be. Bake your payment solution authentication into your Google Voice app, Google. Sheesh.
Adding an alternate authentication method besides a Google account would expand Google Pay's potential user base, but completely detaching Google Pay from Google accounts is a terrible, limiting move.
I like Ars Technica's opinion that Google's top management probably feels that what's working in India should work for the rest of the world. As much as I can understand that logic from a business process standpoint, financial services and usage still vary wildly worldwide. One financial services shoe definitely does not fit all. Any worldwide company with a few years of experience should know this.
Google does seem to have crapping on its users once in a while as a primary goal, though. I still use them because they do excel at a lot of things, but it's getting harder to justify not pulling further away. Maybe they'll change or cancel enough of their services that I'll have migrated completely away in a few years.
Then again, none of the big services make me entirely happy across the board. I'm much less satisfied with most of them than I used to be. But I'm trying to simplify my online presence. That dynamic will fuel multiple discussions for other times.
For now, thanks for yet another unnecessary change that's making me consider non-Google services, Google. Cheers.