An update of Play Services silently blocked intact mobile payments with Chinese ROM, leaving holders Xiaomi, Vivo, Oppo and OnePlus to discover it only at the cashier.
The latest version of Google Play Services silently disabled the intact payments via NFC to smartphones with Chinese ROM, leaving countless Xiaomi, Vivo, Oppo and OnePlus devices holders unable to pay with Google Wallet. The problem appeared with version 26.28 and, after intense user reactions, it seems Google has now resolved it remotely, on the backend side.
The exclusion concerned exclusively devices imported or purchased in China, i.e. mobiles with Chinese ROM. Those who bought Chinese smartphone manufacturing Global version in Europe or anywhere else were not affected. With the 26.26 version of Play Services payments operated normally, while from 26.28 onwards Chinese edition holders began reporting that were suddenly unable to complete transactions in NFC terminals, even though Google Pay worked uninterruptedly for years.
The list of affected devices found the Chinese versions of Vivo X300 Pro, X300 Ultra, X200 Ultra, X100 Ultra, X Fold5, X Fold3 Pro and X200 Pro mini, Oppo Find N3 and Find X9 Pro, Xiaomi 17 Ultra and 13 Pro, as well as OnePlus Ace6 and 15T. Reports, as recorded by Notebookcheck, arrived from both Europe and Brazil, without the issue being limited to a specific geographical area.
The cause was identified by developer MarvinFS in post it on the XDA forum. In Vivo X200 Ultra's Play Services log the lines appeared repeatedly «TapAndPay: deviceSupportsTokenization: CN SCU» and «TapAndPay: Disabling TapAndPay HCE service». Once Chinese SCU is identified during an intact payment, TapAndPay HCE service is automatically disabled. «Google Play Services 26.28. 63 recognized Vivo X200 Ultra as Chinese SCU and disabled TapAndPay HCE service. This explains why the Wallet app and Android Wallet role seemed to work properly, while intact payments remained impossible», explains.
Because Google Wallet did not show any error message, the problem was only perceived at the time of payment to a store when the terminal said the card was not supported.
Μέχρι να παρέμβει η Google, οι χρήστες κατέφυγαν σε προσωρινές λύσεις. Η μία ήταν η επαναφορά σε παλαιότερη έκδοση των Play Services μέσω ADB, που όμως μηδένιζε το Google Wallet και απαιτούσε επανακαταχώριση όλων των καρτών. Μια άλλη ήταν ο ορισμός διαφορετικού wallet, όπως το Curve Pay, ως προεπιλεγμένης επιλογής πληρωμής. Η πιο απλή προέκυψε από τον χρήστη «Just_Soul» στο XDA: η έξοδος από όλα τα προγράμματα beta μέσα από τις ρυθμίσεις του Google Play Store αποκαθιστούσε τις πληρωμές, ακόμη και σε όσους δεν είχαν εγγραφεί ποτέ σε κάποιο beta.
Το τελευταίο στοιχείο ενίσχυσε την εκτίμηση ότι επρόκειτο για bug ή για ένα beta που κατέληξε κατά λάθος σε τελικές συσκευές. Δείχνει ωστόσο ότι η Google διαθέτει, και προφανώς δοκιμάζει, μηχανισμούς ικανούς να απενεργοποιήσουν αποτελεσματικά το Google Pay σε συσκευές με κινεζικό ROM. Για την ώρα πάντως η εταιρεία δεν έχει σχολιάσει το θέμα.
