Samsung has combined several existing apps and services to create Samsung Wallet, an app that holds your digital keys, boarding passes, ID cards, payment cards, and cryptocurrencies, all in one place.
Yes, it’s a lot like Apple Wallet, but with a few extras thrown in.
You may remember Samsung Pay, a mobile payment service the company launched in 2015 and has slowly expanded since, as well as Samsung Pass, an app that lets you save biometric info such as fingerprint or face recognition data for logging into apps and websites. Samsung Wallet combines both services along with Samsung Blockchain Wallet (which lets you keep and send cryptocurrencies) and Samsung’s smart home system SmartThings. It’s all protected by the Samsung Knox security system.
It makes sense to integrate all of this into one app. It sounds like a lot of stuff, but users will likely intuitively understand that most of it belongs in Samsung Wallet. Samsung has updated the interface a little, giving users one-swipe access to all their cards, passes, and IDs.
Support for official IDs is coming later this year.
Credit: Samsung
COVID-19 vaccination status proof can also be stored in Samsung Wallet. The company says that additional functionality, including support for official IDs such as student IDs and mobile driver’s licenses, is coming “later this year.”
How to use Samsung Wallet
To start using Wallet, users will have to open either Samsung Pay or Samsung Pass and start the migration process to Samsung Wallet. Alternatively, you’ll be able to start the process from Samsung’s Galaxy Store.
Samsung Wallet is launching in the U.S., France, Germany, Italy, and Spain. There’s no word on when it may arrive to other markets.
