Samsung launches Samsung Wallet, a one-stop shop to manage your digital identity

Samsung has launched Samsung Wallet, a platform to help users manage their digital keys, payment methods, identification, boarding passes, and more.

Digital wallets are becoming increasingly common, with Apple, Google, Samsung, and others working to adopt the technology. Digital wallets allow users to rely on their phones to unlock and start their vehicles, display identification, pay for transactions, and more. Samsung is significantly increasing its efforts with Samsung Wallet.

“Samsung Wallet is bringing a new level of everyday convenience to mobile devices with a totally safe and secure environment for storing digital keys, cards, and more,” said Jeanie Han, EVP and Head of Digital Life, MX Business at Samsung Electronics. “As part of our ongoing commitment to open ecosystems, we will continue to expand on the capabilities of Samsung Wallet by working closely with our trusted partners and developers.”

See also: How to use NFC on Android

The new Samsung Wallet

Samsung says its new platform uses defense-grade security and encryption — in the form of Samsung Knox — to help protect users’ most sensitive information. A combination of fingerprint recognition and encryption helps protect the data and ensures that only the user has access to it. Samsung Knox also sequesters the most sensitive data stored in Samsung Wallet into an isolated environment, providing an additional layer of protection against both physical and digital hacking.

Samsung Wallet supports digital automobile keys on select BMW, Genesis, and Hyundai models, including the BMW 1-8 Series, X5-X7, and iX models launched after July 2020, as well as on the Hyundai Palisade, Genesis GV60, and G90. More automobile partnerships are expected in the future.

The platform can also be used to track a user’s digital portfolio — including their cryptocurrency investments — and add support for driver’s licenses and student IDs later this year.

Samsung Wallet is available to Galaxy users in the United States, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, and the United Kingdom. Eligible users can open their Samsung Pay or Samsung Pass app and follow the steps to migrate to Samsung Wallet or download the app via the Google Play Store.