Google’s March 2023 Play system updates bring some new features to Wallet users

In addition to monthly security patches for Pixel phones, Google also releases regular Play system updates for Android devices. However, these releases are not strictly once a month, and it turns out that this time we didn’t have to wait long at all for the next one. As a matter of fact, the March 2023 release notes for Google’s system updates were released a few days ago, but the initial list of changes was quite small. The company has now updated the changelog to highlight some additional changes in the latest update.

For the uninitiated, Google Play System Updates add new features and quality-of-life changes to phones, tablets, Wear OS watches, Android TV, and other Google-certified Android devices without the need to roll out a full OS update. As a result, it’s possible to make immediate changes that can’t wait for the next major Android release.

The most significant development with the release is the new tap payment animation that indicates the success of a payment with Google Wallet. Google announced the feature late last month, and it’s now rolling out in Google Play Services v08.23. In addition, Wallet users now have more granular control over the exclusion of loyalty cards imported from Gmail.

Along with the aforementioned changes, the Google Play March 2023 System Update includes further improvements to the Play Store’s automatic app installation feature for connected Android devices, optimizations for faster and more reliable downloads and installations, battery life tweaks, and more. See the full changelog below for the full list of changes:

• Google Play Store
  • New features to help you discover the apps and games you love.
  • Optimizations that enable faster and more reliable downloads and installations.
  • Continuous development of Play Protect to keep your device safe.
  • Various performance optimizations, bug fixes and improvements in security, stability and accessibility.
  • [Phone] Users can automatically make apps installed on phones and tablets available on other connected Android devices, such as watches, TVs, and Chromebooks.
• Wallet
  • [Phone] Wallet users can selectively exclude loyalty cards imported from Gmail.
  • [Phone] New animations after successful tap payment using Google Wallet.
• System management
  • [Auto] [TV] [Phone] [Wear OS] [PC] Updates to system management and usability features that improve battery life, device storage, and network usage.
  • [Auto] [TV] [Phone] [Wear OS] [PC] Stability updates for system management services.

All of the changes listed in the Google Play Store section of the section above come with Play Store v34.8. For the rest, you’ll want to use Google Play Services version 09.23, which should have started rolling out on March 8th.

Source: Google system updates support page