“Samsung Wallet” is about to be released on the market, enabling users to store selected digital keys, boarding pases, identities and more in a single solution.
The company reports that Samsung Wallet combines Samsung Pay and Samsung Pass into a secure platform. The launch of such a mobile feature was hinted at this year’s Unpacked event for the first time.
Starting today, Galaxy users in the United States, France, Germany, the United Kingdom, Italy, and Spain can open the Samsung Pay or Samsung Pass apps in order to switch to the new Samsung Wallet on select Galaxy models that support the Samsung Pay service and run Android 9 Pie or later.
Samsung Wallet will provide users with quick access to payment cards, loyalty cards and membership cards, and more.
Samsung Blockchain Wallet is also integrated to enable users to monitor their portfolio of digital assets by controlling the value of cryptocurrencies. The company notes that Samsung Wallet also includes the Samsung Pass feature that securely stores passwords and verifies the identity of users with their biometric data to connect to apps and services.
The mobile wallet can also be used to store important documents, such as the proof of vaccination against COVID-19. In the near future, Samsung Wallet will begin supporting official IDs, such as driver’s licenses and student IDs from selected institutions.
Samsung Wallet also integrates with SmartThings to support digital car keys in select BMW, Genesis and Hyundai models. The integration will allow users to lock and unlock their cars, launch the machines, and more directly from the mobile wallet. The function is available for various models, including the BMW 1-8 Series, X5, X5 M, X6, X6 M, X7, Z4, iX3, iX and i4 models manufactured after July 2020.
The service is also available for Genesis GV60 models manufactured after September 2021, G90 models manufactured after December 2021, and Hyundai Palisade models manufactured after May 2022. In addition, users can store their boarding cards in their Samsung Wallet, starting with selected Korean Air flights, Samsung notes.It is not clear when users will be able to add boarding passes from other airlines. Samsung also notes that some sensitive information entered into the Wallet service is stored in an isolated environment called “Secure Element” to protect against digital and physical violations.
“Samsung Wallet is upgrading everyday life when it comes to using mobile devices with a completely secure environment for storing digital documents, cards and other items,” Jeanie Han, executive vice president and head of digital life at Samsung Electronics, said in a statement.”As part of our ongoing commitment to open ecosystems, we will continue to expand Samsung Wallet capabilities by working closely with our trusted partners and developers.”
Samsung Wallet is quite similar to Apple Wallet, which also allows users to store payment information and personal data, including vaccination files.It’s worth noting that the Apple Wallet app has already begun to allow users to store driver’s licenses and government IDs, with users in Arizona and Maryland being the first to access this feature. However, Apple Wallet does not currently allow users to store cryptocurrency information.
Samsung Wallet will also compete with the recently announced Google Wallet, which is a new Android and Wear OS app that will allow users to store things like credit cards, loyalty cards, digital IDs, transit tickets, concert tickets, vaccination cards, and more.