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Google Pay now supports Washington DC Metro travel passes
Metro SmarTrip cards can now be loaded and reloaded in the app
Google has been working hard to expand the utility of Google Pay, not just across thousands of banks, but for more types of transactions. One of these is public transit payments and passes, previously available in select cities in the US, UK, Australia, Canada, India, Japan, Singapore, Russia, and Ukraine. Today Google is adding support for the transit system of the United States capital, Washington DC.
It wasn't that long ago that Google Pay (and its previous names) was solely focused on making purchases in a store or paying on the spot to get onto subways...and sometimes sending money to friends. Google recently added support for one-time transit tickets on the Las Vegas Monorail and prepaid commuter cards with the TriMet in Portland, Oregon, but things are about to get a lot more interesting thanks to the latest update. We can expect to see support added for airport boarding passes and event tickets. There are several other big additions coming, too, so let's get straight into it.
Google Maps offers some stellar features, but that doesn't mean that it can't be improved upon, particularly in the area of public transit. Moovit is a navigation app that specializes in bus and train routes, and the latest version completely overhauls the interface. In particular it's much easier to assign a destination location from the main screen: instead of manually entering an address via text, just slide the map around until the indicator is where you want to go.
Duolingo, the much-loved app/game for learning new languages, got its second significant Android update this morning since being released back in May. Version 1.2 of the app brings with it the ability to store up to an hour of lessons on-device for offline use. Previously, Duolingo required an always-on internet connection in order to download your lessons and stay in sync with the server, but with the latest update this is no longer necessary. Here's the Play Store changelog in full:
[Update: It's Live!] Google Maps Is About To Get An Update To v6.10, Adds A Ton Of New Public Transit Info And Features
It's not quite live yet, but Google would like you to know that Google Maps 6.10 is on its way to handsets by the end of the day. "What's new for me, the
It's not quite live yet, but Google would like you to know that Google Maps 6.10 is on its way to handsets by the end of the day. "What's new for me, the public transit user?" I hear you ask. Quite a bit, in fact! First off, Google has announced that it now has data on more than one million transit stops worldwide, spread throughout almost 500 cities. In an effort to make that information more usable, the Transit Lines map layer can now me narrowed down to a single method of transportation. Um. Yes please.