Review of Blockchain bitcoin wallet for Android
The Blockchain.info website can be used as a mobile wallet thanks to its Android app. Blockchain.info is best known as Bitcoin's block chain explorer, but it also has a wallet feature where you can send and receive bitcoins. With the Android app, you can access all this while you're on the move.
The app opens up asking you either to create a new account or to pair with your existing wallet. Registering on the website is better as there are a few pieces of data to keep a record of. Pairing with the website involves opening your account details on the blockchain.info website, and clicking on the devices section, and there you'll find an option to display a QR code. This can then be scanned by the app on your phone, then the pairing is complete. As far as the app design goes, it is easy to pair, it just takes a little digging to find the QR code on the website.
a
Once paired, you are shown a summary of your wallet, including balance and a list of transactions. Besides the balance is a small icon of a QR code. Tapping this reveals a larger QR and your wallet address. Other bitcoin users can scan this to send you money.
b
Additionally, tapping the leftward arrow on the app's toolbar lets you generate a QR code request. Here, you need to configure the QR code with the amount of BTC you wish to receive.
c
Tapping on each transaction lets you see extended information, such as the amount, value, and how many confirmations it has received from bitcoin nodes.
d
You can send money too by tapping the rightwards arrow on the toolbar. The app supports Quick Send, Custom Send, and Shared Send. It's all straight forward.
e
The app also lets you view exchange rates, via the main menu, which also gives access to the app settings. The settings pages actually redirects you to a web page, where you can establish how to receive notifications of new transactions. By default, notifications will appear in your Android status bar. Strangely, there is also an option to buy bitcoins on the main menu, but the web page that it directs you to is just blank.
f
We'd recommend this app as a decent starting point for handling your bitcoin wallet on a mobile device. If you were expecting, from its name that you'd be able to use the app to explore the blockchain then you'd only be half right. The app only shows your transactions and contains hyperlinks that break you out into your phone's browser to show the corresponding page on the blockchain.info website.
As a mobile bitcoin wallet, this app works as seen by our story about buying beer for bitcoins!
You can find the Blockchain.info app on the Google Play Store.
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