Samsung introduces a new Wallet app, which combines Samsung Pay and Samsung Pass apps. However, the Samsung Wallet app has some new features and Blockchain Wallet integration.
The Samsung Wallet app
Users can store their payment cards, loyalty, and membership cards on the Wallet app. In addition, they can even use the Wallet app as their password manager to store and access their passwords. Interestingly, users can also check the value of their cryptocurrencies on the app across various exchanges.
The Samsung Wallet app also stores documents such as vaccination records and boarding passes. But, except for Korean Air, other airlines are yet to opt in to this feature. Besides that, SmartThings integration with the Samsung Wallet app can store digital home and car keys. And for this, the South Korean tech giant has partnered with nine home security companies, BMW, Genesis, and Hyundai. Although only select cars from these brands currently support this feature, Samsung plans to sign up more car brands soon. Apart from these, the Wallet app also intends to add support for driver’s licenses and student IDs in the coming months.
Furthermore, the company uses its Knox security platform to secure the Wallet app and all its data. Therefore, the information stored in the app will be encrypted and require fingerprint access. In addition, users can store sensitive data in an isolated environment to prevent hacking.
Similarities with the Apple Wallet app
Interestingly, the features offered by the Samsung Wallet app sound similar to the ones that Apple Wallet offers. And even though the features aren’t identical, the idea behind them is the same. For instance, the Apple Wallet can store payment cards, car keys, boarding passes, etc. And it even supports driver’s licenses and state IDs in certain regions, in which Samsung’s Wallet app lags. And even Google is working on a similar idea called the Google Wallet app. Hence, soon almost all Android users will be able to take advantage of the features offered by the Wallet app.
Lastly, Samsung’s Wallet app is accessible to users in the US, UK, France, Germany, Italy, and Spain. But, they must have a Samsung Pay-enabled Galaxy phone with Android 9 or later.
