Google Play Services update 26.28.33 and later breaks NFC contactless payments on smartphones with Chinese ROMs. This change affects buyers who imported devices from China and rely on Google Pay for daily transactions. Users report that their phones suddenly stop recognizing payment terminals after the automatic update installs.
Affected Vivo, Oppo, and Xiaomi devices lose contactless functionality
The issue targets specific hardware configurations running on Chinese versions of Vivo, Oppo, Xiaomi, and OnePlus devices. Affected models include the Vivo X200 Ultra, Vivo X300 Pro, Vivo X300 Ultra, Vivo X100 Ultra, Vivo X Fold5, Vivo X Fold3 Pro, Vivo X200 Pro (mini), Oppo Find N3, Oppo Find X9 Pro, and Xiaomi 17 Ultra. Global ROM versions of these same devices remain unaffected by this update.
The technical root cause lies in how the updated Play Services identifies device origin. The software detects a 'CN SKU' and explicitly disables the TapAndPay HCE service required for NFC transactions. This mechanism prevents the device from tokenizing payment data even when the Wallet app appears to function normally.
Developer MarvinFS confirmed that Play Services 26.28.63 disables the TapAndPay HCE service upon detecting the Chinese SKU. He noted that the Wallet app and Android Wallet role appeared to be functioning correctly while contactless payments remained unavailable. This behavior suggests a targeted policy decision rather than a random software bug, though Google has not commented.
Users can restore functionality by rolling back Play Services to an older version using ADB commands. Alternatively, they can bypass the restriction by using third-party wallet apps like Curve Pay that do not rely on the disabled HCE service. We looked at similar NFC restrictions earlier while tracking Android security patches.
Source: NotebookCheck
