Samsung Wallet: Pay and Pass are dead, here's what that means

As we’re on the verge of Google’s revamp of Wallet, Samsung is doing the same. After months of teasing, Samsung Wallet is official as the merger of Samsung Pay and Samsung Pass, and the home of your ID, car keys, credit cards, and much more.

Samsung Pay is dead, long live Samsung Wallet

What is Samsung Wallet? The revival of the previously-used branding from 2015 merges Samsung Pay and Samsung Pass under the same roof. One app now handles everything that the other two did. It’s an approach largely going after Apple Wallet, which has done essentially the same thing for years.

Samsung Wallet will be able to house credit and debit cards, first and foremost.

You can link a card to the app and, on compatible devices, use those cards in stores that accept NFC payments – it’s using the same tech as Apple Pay and Google Pay, so you’ll find it in most stores. You can also store loyalty cards for stores, most of which will appear as a QR code or barcode that can be scanned during checkout.

The new app will also be able pull in airline tickets, digital car keys, and more.

Samsung says the app will support official IDs soon, including your driver’s license or student ID. Further, there’s also support for crypto wallets. As far as ticketing and car keys go, Samsung has a partnership with Korean Air, as well as BMW, Kia, and Genesis. Surely, that list will expand in time, though.

When and where is Samsung Wallet available?

Samsung Wallet starts rolling out today, June 16. The new app will be available in the US, UK, France, Italy, Spain, and Germany.

The app will be compatible with all Samsung Galaxy devices running Android 9.0 or higher, but some features are limited to devices with UWB radios or eSE.

9to5Google’s Take

It’s commendable that Samsung is cleaning up its offering for a digital wallet into a single app, and the implementation here seems good.

But really, with Google doing the same thing, it’s hard to see where Samsung Wallet is more compelling. The app is locked down to a single ecosystem, and will surely not get as much favor from third-party entities as Google Wallet will (in time).

I hope to be proven wrong, but just like Samsung Pay, it’s hard to justify this option. MST was the last compelling reason to use it, but that’s long gone.

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