Google Wallet is a simple and secure digital wallet that can conveniently hold everything from payment cards to concert tickets. But what happens when you are out of Wi-Fi range or your mobile data is down? Can you still use it?

The Short Answer Is Yes (With Some Caveats)

Google Wallet is pretty helpful when you don’t want to have a bulky physical wallet with you. However, cell signals and data connectivity are things out of our control when we’re out and about. So, it’s reasonable to worry about not being able to use Google Wallet when there is no data connection.

Fortunately, you can rest assured that most of its features will continue working even if your phone or smartwatch has no data connectivity. For example, you can make contactless payments with your bank cards even when your device is offline. However, you won’t be able to add a new bank card.

Similarly, other cards and passes, such as boarding passes, event tickets, loyalty cards, digital IDs, and gift cards, don’t typically have an online component for regular usage. You may need the internet to add them if they are being fetched from an online service. Otherwise, they don’t need a data connection to work.

Digital IDs, corporate badges, car keys, health insurance cards, and hotel keys can also work offline.

However, if you’re offline, Google Wallet won’t be able to fetch the latest information about the stored cards and passes, such as loyalty points balance or updated flight times.

How Does Google Wallet Work Offline?

As mentioned, many of the cards and passes you save in Google Wallet don’t have an active online component. So, the app doesn’t need to connect to the internet when using these cards. However, things are slightly different for payment cards.

When you add a bank card to Google Wallet, the app downloads a few one-use tokens from your card issuer that essentially represent your payment card. These codes are securely stored on your device and transmitted to the contactless terminals when you pay for something. The terminal does all the heavy lifting. It uses the token to communicate with the bank server and complete the transaction. So, you don’t really need the internet to pay with NFC, as nothing except the encrypted one-use code is being transmitted. This also keeps the entire process secure from man-in-the-middle-style attacks.

However, one-use tokens can run out if you use contactless payments often without taking your phone or smartwatch online. In such a scenario, you won’t be able to make any more payments. So, it’s recommended that your device is not offline for an extended period of time if you want to continue using contactless payment without issues. Whenever your phone is online, Google Wallet replenishes its supply of one-use tokens for future use.

The number of one-use tokens Google Wallet typically stores depends on the card issuer. The number can be anything from around five to ten. It’s also possible for some card issuers to not support the offline payment functionality.

It May Be Better to Go Offline in Poor Network Areas

Although Google Wallet works fine when connected to a stable internet, it can struggle with unstable data connections. So, if you encounter empty gray boxes while trying to access the various cards or passes in your Google Wallet, your phone is likely having connectivity issues. The app is trying to reach the internet to reconfirm the validity and other details of your added cards but cannot do so because of internet problems.

In such cases, it’s a better idea to disable mobile data and Wi-Fi. This way, you will at least be able to use all the app features that can work offline, including its primary function of contactless payments. Once you have disabled mobile data and Wi-Fi, you can use view and use your stored cards. This is particularly helpful in areas with poor networks.

Google Wallet is a convenient and versatile tool for Android users. It has quickly become the one-stop destination for all your cards, IDs, tickets, and passes. Now that you know you can also trust it to do the job offline, here are 10 Google Wallet features that you probably don’t know about.