Samsung has officially launched its Samsung Wallet, which was unveiled back in February during its Unpacked 2022 event. The new app – which is described as “an easy-to-use, secure platform that holds everything your digital life needs” – will see the functions of two existing Samsung services, Samsung Pay and Samsung Pass, being combined.

For context, Samsung Pay is a mobile payment service that was launched in 2015, whereas Samsung Pass is the tech giant’s app that lets you save biometric information to log into apps and websites. With both now merged as Samsung Wallet, users will be able to use the resulting platform as a comprehensive tool to make payments, as well as keep a range of personal documents and items.

As was mentioned in the initial unveiling, some key things that you’ll be able to store in your Samsung Wallet include credit and debit cards, loyalty cards for stores, as well as official digital IDs such as driver’s licence and student cards. Of these, Samsung said that support for official digital IDs will only be added later this year.

Aside from that, the new platform also allows you to store your boarding passes as well as digital house and automobile keys, making it convenient for you to board flights or open doors via your mobile device. Note, though, that this Samsung Wallet feature is only available for selected airline, home security, and automobile manufacturer partners. For instance, Samsung Wallet only supports digital boarding passes for Korean Air at launch, and digital automobile keys for select BMW, Genesis, and Hyundai models.

“Samsung Wallet also incorporates the functionality of Samsung Pass which securely stores passwords and enables users to quickly and easily log into apps and services. It even helps users quickly monitor their digital asset portfolio by checking the value of their cryptocurrencies across various exchanges in one place,” the tech giant further stated in a statement.

In terms of security, Samsung Wallet will be protected by Samsung Knox, dubbed a “defense-grade security platform”. Among other things, your data will be protected by fingerprint recognition and encryption. Key sensitive items in Samsung Wallet will also be stored in the embedded Secure Element – an isolated environment – which limits the probability of digital and physical hacking.

Finally, Samsung clarified that Samsung Wallet will be made available only to six markets for now –France, Germany, Italy, Spain, the UK, and the US – as opposed to the original seven markets that were mentioned previously. Users in these regions who have Galaxy phones that support Samsung Pay and are running on Android 9 Pie or later, can begin tapping into the new platform just by firing up their Samsung Pay or Samsung Pass app. They’ll then be prompted to update and migrate to Samsung Wallet.

(Sources: Samsung, Mashable)

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• Samsung Pass
• Samsung Pay
• Samsung Wallet