[T-Mobile, Samsung Galaxy SIII] itsmikeramsay:
​

Thought I'd spread the word. All credit goes to Paul on this! Amazing work!

Google Wallet is super cool. It allows purchasing of things using the NFC chip in your device at Mastercard PayPass terminals, using either an inbuilt pre-paid card (which is loaded up with $10 free credit initially) or a CitiBank Citi Mastercard. But, there is a problem - and that's that Wallet is only available for a very limited subset of devices on a limited number of operators in the US.

Hence the need to patch the APK.

Now, i'll start by saying that there may well be a patched APK out there already (I didn't check), I chose to patch the APK myself because, when i'm putting in my credit card numbers etc. I like to know what i'm working with. I started with the latest version I downloaded personally from the Google Play Store (by spoofing my operator with 'Market Access') which I then patched as required.

The patched APK

The APK has 3 features that I patched out. The first was a device check - the app will now work on any device. Of course you need to have NFC for it to be useful! I tested on a HTC One X successfully (as you can see in the screenshots above) but of course YMMV. The second patch was an operator check - the app should now not care which operator you are on. The third patch was removing the root warning. Google Wallet doesn't actually stop you using the app if you're rooted, it just gives you a warning on screen (which is a little annoying), so I removed it. BUT... rather than having the warning in app, let me post it here instead. If you are using Google Wallet on a rooted device, really think about which apps you are giving root access... because there is the possibility that a malicious app could do bad things. There's no evidence of this happening, but it's possible. As always, be wary of what you're installing and where it came from.

Installation

The APK cannot be installed in the regular way (because it is not re-signed and therefore has broken signatures), instead you should push the apk to /system/app (or copy there using a file explorer and set appropriate permissions) and then you'll be good to go. This means you'll need to be rooted or at least have a custom recovery installed mind. To uninstall, use the 'reset wallet' option in the settings menu then delete the APK.

Important note re: upgrading

If you are using a previous version of Wallet, please ensure you the 'reset wallet' option in the Wallet app settings.

Download

Download the patched APK here - DOWNLOAD (ROMraid) - MD5: 775946c9b164d2dd1edc1a36e59e41a3

Topping Up

So you've installed the APK and spent your initial $10 at Greggs or maybe Mcdonalds. Healthy. Now you need to top up... there's a problem!

Google Wallet only allows you to load the prepaid card using a US card, which most of us accessing Wallet this way don't have! The card that you use needs to support AVS (address verification) with a US address, something that also excludes a number of US cards. I'm hoping that we as a community can collaborate to work out the best way to do this, but i've tried a few methods and i've chronicled them below. I'll update this post as more methods / information surfaces. I'm hoping we can find a low cost disposable Visa solution or similar that makes the process easy. Getting a US address is easy enough to associate with a card, just sign up (free) for US Unlocked.

BFPS - Virtual credit card in various denominations, configurable AVS address, use coupon 'modaco' for 5% discount - WORKING

EntroPay - Virtual credit card, turns out to be Malta registered and doesn't support AVS - FAILED

US Unlocked card - Virtual credit card, currently untested - UNKNOWN

The 1.5 release

The 1.5 release added support for third party Visa / Mastercard / Discover / Amex cards. This is officially US only at the moment and although you CAN get non-US cards appearing correctly, in my experience so far, payments are always declined.

Disclaimer

If you use any of the above modified APKs or top up methods, you do so at your own risk! Please let us know how you get on in the comments below, so we can refine / improve the process based on our experiences.

WARNING

If you plan to wipe your device, switch ROM on your device or otherwise do anything unusual (including 'clearing data' on wallet), it is highly recommended that you use the 'reset wallet' option in the Wallet app settings. Failure to do this could render Wallet inoperable on your device!

Another note of caution, we're using a 'hack' here, so it's probably not the best idea to load up your Prepaid card with a ton of money in case Google blocks hacked wallets, something changes, etc. etc. and you could lose your money. Again, use at your own risk.

And finally...

If you find the above useful and you want to support my work on this and all the other MoDaCo projects, please consider signing up for a premium MoDaCo account. Thanks!

Paul