If your Pixel phone is struggling with tap-to-pay, you're not alone

Google recently rolled out support for adding physical transit cards and balances to Google Wallet. Meaning that you can now use your NFC-compatible Android phone to access public transportation without having to carry your card around. However, you might want to keep that card by your side for a little longer. A bug is causing NFC to go in and out on Pixel phones.

It’s not uncommon for updates to break NFC on phones, and it looks like that may be happening once again. We’re seeing an increase in reports about NFC problems. According to the affected users, contactless payments and passes have only been working intermittently as of late. Based on the reports, it appears the problem can only be solved by restarting the phone.

Some users claim that they started noticing something was off last week, and it has been a recurring issue since then. An owner of the Pixel 11 Pro XL says they’re running Android 17 (build CD1A.260905.001.B1) with version 26.34.36 (260400-981326859) of Google Play Services. Another user also claims to have the latest updates installed.

As of right now, there’s no clear cause of the problem. The reports span across multiple Pixel phone generations, including the Pixel 8, 9, 10, and 11 series. To get to the bottom of this, we have reached out to Google for comment. This article will be updated when new information becomes available.