Android Q’s fourth beta has started rolling out and it looks like users will be able to enable the power button to access a new ‘Cards and Passes‘ option which seems like it’s going to let you view the cards and passes you have stored within your Google Pay account, making for a rather fast method of managing specific cards for various reasons.
Following the release of the fourth beta a new option was discovered with the Cards and Passes name inside of the gestures menu on the Pixel. Though the functionality itself is not yet live, it appears the reasoning behind adding this new gesture option may be so users will have a quick way of swapping which cards they want to use for payments at locations where Google Pay is accepted.
Simply by long pressing the power button the Cards and Passes window should pop up and users should be able to swipe through the list of cards which they already have stored within the Google Pay app, adding to the small but useful set of gestures which Google has already worked into the Android software.
Currently long pressing the power button brings up the quick access options for the power menu, letting users do things like power off or restart the device as well as take screenshots. With the introduction of the Cards and Passes gesture this power menu will reportedly be moved to the bottom of the screen, so it’ll still be accessible and hasn’t been removed.
In addition to the cards and passes that users have stored in Google Pay, the new gesture will also seemingly pull up any tickets that are stored in the app as well as emergency information.
Once the gesture goes live on devices that have Android Q installed, users will presumably have a fast way to bring up tickets for things like movies, concerts or other types of events.
It’s already possible to use your phone to scan tickets that you’ve purchased when gaining entry to an event, thus bypassing the need to carry a physical ticket. If you happen to store these tickets in Google Pay after purchase it’ll be a lot faster to bring them up the moment you get to the venue and need to scan in.
This also makes for a smart way for Google to utilize a single gesture to bring up even more actions, and this could lead to Google doing similar things in the future with additional gestures.
Long pressing the power button will only bring up cards and passes that are stored in Google Pay if the feature is toggled on, so users who aren’t keen on having their cards and passes show up in this manner can rest assured they’ll be in control of making this an available option, just like the other gestures that are currently available.
In addition to this new gesture, the Android Q beta 4 software also introduced managing of notifications using AI through the Adaptive Notifications feature. Google has already finalized the APIs for the software and is preparing to launch Android Q as a stable build to users at some point this Summer.