No wonder they say that history tends to repeat itself – a month ago, Google decided to return Wallet and eventually replace it with Google Pay, which at one time ate Wallet. And now, following the example of Google, Samsung is reviving its Wallet – this is a new ( old ) brand of a South Korean company for a payment service that will combine several Samsung services together.
The new Samsung Wallet will be available today. It will replace the current Pay and Pass applications, which manage payment cards and passwords, respectively. It also integrates with the SmartThings platform to store some digital home and car keys.
And of course, Samsung Wallet integrates with the Samsung Blockchain Wallet , so you can easily check the value of your portfolio of cryptocurrencies if they do not disappear in the future (unlikely, but still).
Samsung also plans to add some of the new features to the new Wallet that were announced at the Unpacked presentation earlier this year, including the ability to save digital IDs and driver’s licenses. The new service is protected by Samsung Knox proprietary technology.
The Samsung Digital Key feature has so far only been supported in Samsung Pass for one vehicle, the Genesis GV60. Now the company is expanding compatibility, with an update coming soon to add support for the Genesis G90 and Hyundai Palisade, as well as select BMW models released after July 2020. The new Wallet is compatible with nine smart home security protocol developers through the SmartThings platform. This will allow you to use digital keys from home. There are other, more mundane features, like the ability to save airline boarding passes, although this functionality is currently limited to Korean Air flights.
Samsung Wallet is currently available in the US, UK and select European countries for Galaxy phones – with Samsung Pay running on Android version 9 or later. However, availability of all features may vary by phone model – some digital car keys will require an Ultra Wide Band connection, while others require a phone with a Samsung Embedded Secure Element (eSE) hardware module.
