Android 16 Is Adding A New Shortcut To Launch Google Wallet, And We Have Screenshots

Edgar Cervantes / Android Authority

If you store a lot of credit cards, transit passes, and other items in Google Wallet, you may find it handy to add the wallet shortcut to your lock screen and Quick Settings panel. That way, you can quickly switch cards without unlocking your phone and opening the Google Wallet app. Those of you looking for an even quicker way to open Google Wallet on your Pixel phone will be happy to know that Google is working on a new shortcut that opens it, and it could arrive in this year’s Android 16 update.

Many of the best Android phones let you customize what happens when you double-tap the power button, but this isn’t the case for Google Pixel phones. If you have a Pixel, double-tapping the power button always opens the Pixel Camera app, a shortcut that comes in handy when you need to quickly snap a photo. However, this shortcut might not be very useful if you don’t take many photos. Fortunately, Google will soon let you change the double-tap power shortcut to launch Google Wallet instead of Pixel Camera.

While digging through the Android 15 QPR2 Beta 3 release that Google just pushed out earlier today, I discovered some strings relating to this feature, confirming my earlier report. Here are the strings in question:

%1$s / %2$s  Double Tap Power Button  Double tap power button  Access Wallet  Open Wallet

These strings are part of a new page under Settings > System > Gestures called double tap power button. This page will replace the existing quickly open camera page. On this new page, you’ll be able to set the double-tap power button shortcut to either launch the Pixel Camera app (the current default) or the default wallet app. With a bit of tinkering, I managed to surface the new double tap power button page in Android 15 QPR2 Beta 3, which you can see below.

With this setting enabled, you can double-tap the power button to open the default wallet app, regardless of what app you’re in or whether the screen is off. I say “default wallet app” and not Google Wallet because the shortcut will launch whatever wallet app you’ve configured as the default, a feature that Google added in Android 15.

Android 15 QPR2 Beta 3 is the third and final beta for this quarterly platform release. As the feature is not present in this final beta, it will not be included in the stable QPR2 release. Because QPR2 is the last quarterly update for Android 15, the feature will not appear until a beta version of Android 16 at the earliest. While I don’t know the exact release timeline for this feature, I’ll continue to monitor Google’s beta releases to see when it goes live.

Got a tip? Talk to us! Email our staff at [email protected]. You can stay anonymous or get credit for the info, it’s your choice.