WearOS and Google Pay in NZ - anybody got it working?

Forums › Gadgets, robotics, home automation, electronics (including wearables) › WearOS and Google Pay in NZ - anybody got it working?

lchiu7

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#261989 28-Dec-2019 08:25

Having just upgraded my watch from a Moto 360 V2 (which still worked pretty well for what I wanted) to a Fossil Gen 5 Carlyle (thanks to Santa :-) ) I thought I would look at Google Pay but discovered of course that it's not supported in NZ. Interesting that Google Pay is supported (I use it all the time on my phone) but not on WearOS.

Well I looked at this thread for a hack to make it work which involves installing an app and using a permanent proxy,

https://forum.xda-developers.com/android/apps-games/app-enable-google-pay-unsupported-t3980625

It seems like a lot of work just to be able to touch your watch to make a payment which has a cute factor but that's all really. Just wondering if anybody here has actually tried it.

A bridge even further is setting up your permanent proxy

https://www.blackhatworld.com/seo/set-up-your-own-google-cloud-proxy-servers.1057000/

I just don't think it's worth the hassle but of course some tech savvy Geekzoner could set it up and share it with a few people since the transaction load is going to be pretty low :-)

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#2382277 28-Dec-2019 19:40

So in short.... "I'm to lazy to do this so someone else do it and pay the fees for the cloud proxy then give me access"?

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lchiu7

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#2382286 28-Dec-2019 20:09

I guess the implied smiley face was too subtle for some

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boosacnoodle

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#2382324 28-Dec-2019 23:03

Yeah, sure. Just ignore the Russian IP I'm about to give you that all of your payment details will need to go through...

gcorgnet

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#2392278 15-Jan-2020 06:48

Hey guys, so has anyone managed to get Google Pay working on Wear OS in NZ? (also using a Fossil Gen 5 Carlyle here)

Cheers

jamesrt

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#2392298 15-Jan-2020 08:43

"Working" in the sense that:

a) My new watch arrived yesterday,

b) I initially turned it on and set it up at work,

c) As part of the setup, I was asked to setup Google Pay; set a PIN for the watch, and I was able to load a credit-card into Google Pay

I've not tested it by actually buying anything yet*

Note that my phone was on the work WiFi during this, and the fact that "work" happens to be a Australian-owned bank may just be co-incidence... :-)

(And the watch updated itself overnight, and I notice now that the Pay functions are gone again; I'll be interested to see if a power-cycle/reboot whilst in work restores it again

EDIT: It didn't; will try harder some other time via TunnelBear or some other VPN service... It also may be the system update killed it)

* I've only had the watch 2 days - gimme a break!

jamesrt

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#2392326 15-Jan-2020 09:23

jamesrt: EDIT: It didn't; will try harder some other time via TunnelBear or some other VPN service...

OK, using TunnelBear on my phone, bringing up a VPN to Australia, and then rebooting the watch was enough to restore the Google Pay icons & shortcuts.

Still don't know if I can buy anything; maybe I'll try that at lunchtime.

From what I understand, the watch/phone/VPN will NOT need to be active during the purchase - because, let's face it, the average PayWave enabled credit-card doesn't contain a cellphone chip either!

Obviously having the VPN active during the watch reboot was enough to satisfy the WearOS initially to enable Google Pay... From that point, a purchase should "just work" offline.

We'll see!

lchiu7

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#2392407 15-Jan-2020 10:50

Interesting. I didn't know the tunnelbear VPN would survive a reboot.

I have the same fossil watch and I looked briefly at Google play on the watch and came across this long thread at XDA.

https://www.xda-developers.com/enable-google-pay-unsupported-countries-wear-os/

It didn't look too hard but you had to set up a proxy service which given the number of stores these days that don't accept NFC payments, didn't seem worthwhile and I'm happy just to use my phone when they do.

If the VPN solution works then I would be more interested.

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gcorgnet

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#2392452 15-Jan-2020 11:02

Mine's got Google Pay set up and NFC enabled but nothing happens when I hold my watch to a Paywave reader...

jamesrt

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#2392635 15-Jan-2020 17:34

Purchased a snack at McD's (mostly because it was a low-value payment for testing purposes) via tap-n-go/NFC/WearOS.

Guess it works then.

lchiu7: Interesting. I didn't know the tunnelbear VPN would survive a reboot

To clarify: VPN/Tunnelbear running on PHONE, and only rebooted WATCH; so when the watch reconnected after the reboot via Bluetooth/phone, it went via the VPN initially. VPN disabled once watch had rebooted and I could see the Google Pay option was enabled.

gcorgnet

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#2392704 15-Jan-2020 21:56

jamesrt:

... and I could see the Google Pay option was enabled.

What exactly does this mean? Which menu can you see that?

lchiu7

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#2392708 15-Jan-2020 22:18

gcorgnet:

jamesrt:

... and I could see the Google Pay option was enabled.

What exactly does this mean? Which menu can you see that?

Did that and now Google Pay is available on the watch (well the icon is there). But if I press it I see a brief flash of another screen A Better Way to Pay by Google and then it disappears. The first time I did get a chance to set it up. Guess I will try at McD tomorrow to see if it actually works.

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jamesrt

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#2392709 15-Jan-2020 22:26

gcorgnet: What exactly does this mean? Which menu can you see that?

Here on the screen when you swipe down from the top:

and "Google Pay" appears in the app list when you click the main button.

I believe the app also needs to be displaying on the screen to work; when I made my purchase earlier, my virtual card was displaying - my watch has a 2nd button which can be configured to start/run Google Pay when pressed.

[TicWatch C2, btw]

jamesrt

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#2392712 15-Jan-2020 22:33

lchiu7: But if I press it I see a brief flash of another screen A Better Way to Pay by Google and then it disappears.

Yes, I can't do much myself with the app either; the 'disappear' is the app crashing, I think. It may be more stable if the VPN was still up; or if I used the proxy trick from the XDA article, or indeed went to Australia! [Hopefully will be visiting later in the year so will be interesting to compare functionality]

I said it worked, I didn't say it worked well!!

lchiu7

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#2398774 16-Jan-2020 10:57

Well I had partial success. My Fossil restarted somehow overnight on the charger and Google Pay had disappeared. So turned on Tunnelbear, found the app which had been disabled, enabled it and pressed the app on the phone. After some preliminary screeens it asked me to complete the setup on my phone which I did (and required confirmation with the issuing bank).

Now when I press the Google Pay icon on the watch I see this

Was in town and tried it out again at McD since it's cheap but it didn't work at all. Only after I sat down with my meal and read the FAQ's did I realise that the app has to be open on your watch to work. This is not the same as Google Pay on the phone which only has to be unlocked.

https://support.google.com/wearos/answer/7643998?co=GENIE.Platform%3DAndroid&hl=en

So another trip to McD or New World to try it out (prolly the latter :-) )

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lchiu7

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#2399141 16-Jan-2020 16:35

OK 100% success today once I realised I need to have the app open. Bought stuff at Bunnings (had to try twice), PaknSave and WCC parking.

However still some bugs. If you show the screen I posted earlier, you are supposed to be able to swipe up and see all recent transactions. For me it just returns to the watch face. The only way I can see the transactions is to open the credit card application on my phone.

And the use case isn't clear for me anyway. It's awkward holding the watch to the reader. I prefer to use my phone or if the business doesn't accept Paywave then I need to bring out my credit card.

I think the idea was you couild go out with only your watch but I always go with my phone and if I forget it, I will always have my wallet with me.

It might work better with the proxy server but having experienced using it, I think I will go back to using my phone.

Staying in Wellington. Check out my AirBnB in the Wellington CBD. https://www.airbnb.co.nz/rooms/32019730 Mention GZ to get a 10% discount

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