This month, Google Wallet on Android phones began requiring that you authenticate to even open the app. At the same time, some Wear OS users were prompted for their PIN before every Google Wallet transaction. This was a bug and has now been resolved.
Those impacted were “asked to re-enter their PIN/password on their smartwatch during in-store payments,” even if it was already unlocked. You can see how that quickly gets annoying for tap-to-pay, with the upside of watches being that they firmly remain authenticated after being placed on your wrist.
Not all users encountered this issue. I had no problems on a Pixel Watch 3 in recent weeks.
Fortunately, this was just a bug and not related to the new security behavior on Android phones. In fact, it’s not the first time this Wear OS issue occurred and was resolved (April 2024).
Google acknowledged the problem on May 20 and said it was fixed on May 29: “The issue has been fixed.” The Google Wallet app on Wear OS has seen one or two updates in that period, with the latest being version 25.17.x. Go to the on-watch Play Store to check for updates.
More on Wear OS:
- Wear OS 6 brings media controls, other UI to the always-on display (AOD)
- Google bringing Live Updates to Wear OS in 2026, more use cases coming
- Facer is returning to Wear OS, but not until the next big update
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