Tracking Your Online Orders Just Got A Lot Easier With Google Wallet

If you do any amount of online shopping, you already know the chaos of waiting for a delivery. You bounce between merchant websites and carrier tracking apps, all the while watching your inbox get increasingly cluttered with alerts that your package is one step closer to landing on your doorstep. And let's be honest, digging through a sea of promotional emails to find an elusive tracking number isn't any more exciting either. Thankfully, a new update to Google Wallet should help you completely eliminate that annoying headache.

Google has officially rolled out a feature for those in the U.S. that turns Google Wallet into a centralized hub for all your online orders. Instead of just acting as a digital storage space for things like credit cards and your virtual boarding passes, the app can now automatically pull detailed receipts, carrier tracking numbers, and live shipping statuses directly from your Gmail inbox.

It's a fantastic convenience, but as there so often is, Google has one big caveat you'll need to take into consideration. In order for this feature to work, you have to be comfortable granting Google permission to scan your inbox. You'll need to have both Smart features and personalization and Package tracking enabled in your Gmail settings. If you're deeply concerned about your data privacy, handing over this level of access might give you a little pause. However, if you're already deeply invested in Google's ecosystem, trusting the company to help streamline your shopping experience with things like this and Google Wallet's "Everything Else" feature probably makes sense.

Assuming you're okay permission-wise with letting Google do the heavy lifting, setting up this new feature is an easy and straightforward process. First, you need to make sure the integration is active on the email side. For this, open up your Gmail app, dive into your account settings, and double-check that Package tracking is toggled on. You'll also need to enable Smart features in other Google products to allow Wallet to securely fetch this data.

Once those permissions are granted, the rest is automatic. The next time you make an online purchase, your delivery information will appear right on the Google Wallet home screen. Any items that are arriving soon will be clearly displayed so you can easily view them whenever you want. Plus, you can tap on any specific purchase to view more details about the transaction, including the current shipping status.

Should you want to look at your entire purchase history, simply tap the "View more" button to pull up a longer list of your online orders. Likewise, if you just need hyper-specific carrier updates, tapping Track Package inside the app will instantly redirect you to the carrier's official website. This new online order tracking is quite the practical addition, so hopefully it doesn't become one of the many Google Wallet features that are seriously overlooked. Although the feature is currently limited to the U.S., it's still a huge step forward in transforming Google Wallet from a simple payment tool into more of an all-in-one digital carrying case.