Google revealed last month that the Google Pay app on Android phones will soon be ‘Google Wallet’ (in most countries). Samsung is now pulling a similar move.
Samsung announced ‘Samsung Wallet’ today, a new unified application for everything related to digital IDs, payment cards, loyalty programs, and keys on Galaxy phones. It will replace both Samsung Pay (the current app for payment cards/loyalty programs/etc.) and Samsung Pass (the app for IDs, keys, and passwords). Home keys can be added from Samsung SmartThings, while car keys are compatible with select BMW, Genesis, and Hyundai models.
The new app looks a bit cleaner than Samsung Pay, and it still has all the same security features as before. Just in time for the cryptocurrency ecosystem to collapse, Samsung Wallet also can also help people “quickly monitor their digital asset portfolio by checking the value of their cryptocurrencies across various exchanges in one place.”
Samsung Pay was popular years ago because it could use the Magnetic Secure Transmission (MST) hardware feature in many Samsung phones, allowing many Galaxy phones to tap-to-pay for items at payment terminals that didn’t support NFC. Now that NFC payment terminals are common in the United States and other countries, and Samsung has phased out MST support in new Galaxy phones, there’s usually not much of a reason to use Samsung Pay over Google Pay Google Wallet.
Still, some people don’t like storing their payment information and IDs in a Google account. Samsung also offers its own ‘Samsung Money’ credit and debit cards, which integrates purchase data into Samsung Pay/Wallet, similar to the Apple Card with Apple Wallet.
Samsung Wallet is rolling out as an update to Samsung Pay in France, the United States, Germany Italy, Spain, and the United Kingdom.
Source: Samsung
