Samsung Pay and Google Pay (previously known as Android Pay) are both digital wallet systems. You can use either method to pay for goods at a physical store or over the internet without the need for a physical credit card. If you have an android phone with a near-field communication (NFC) chip, you can make contactless payments. If you use a Samsung phone, you can choose between Samsung’s payment platform called Samsung Pay or Google Pay. Both systems use the tap-to-pay functionality. However, they have some differences in the apps and ease of use. Here are the differences between Samsung Pay and Google Pay.
- Working.
Google Pay uses NFC technology to connect to the point of sale machine that also supports NFC technology. You must download the app and register your credit card. To use it, you only have to tap your smartphone on the point of sale machine. Google pay facilitates a tokenization process where a token acts as a stand-in for your credit card information to protect your account. When it comes to Samsung Pay, it is not a must for the point of sale machine to support NFC technology thanks to their Magnetic Secure Transmission (MST) technology. MST interacts directly with the machine and allows you to complete your payment. Samsung Pay also uses tokenization and PIN, eye scan, or fingerprint authorization. However, it will erase the data on your card after several failed attempts.
- Compatibility.
Samsung lags behind Google Pay when it comes to compatibility. Google Pay works with almost every smartphone that has NFC support. However, Samsung Pay is only available on Samsung devices only. As such, the payment method used by Samsung depends on the popularity of Samsung smartphones which is nowhere near the reach of Android itself. Moreover, most Android smartphones now come with NFC technology. Samsung faces a lot of competition from manufacturers like Huawei, Oppo, and Xiaomi. Each phone produced by the competition comes with NFC technology, meaning that Google Pay wins when it comes to compatibility.
- Longevity.
Although Samsung’s MST technology is fantastic, NFC is like a universal norm. NFC technology is already a trend in the UK and other European countries. As such, the popularity of MST may reduce in due time as the world continues to adopt NFC technology. With the increase of NFC on smartphones, more point-of-sale machines will come with built-in NFC technology to make payments more manageable. Although Samsung can still make payments on NFC-enabled point of sale machines, the popularity of Android surpasses that of Samsung smartphones.
The difference between Samsung Pay vs Google Pay becomes easier when you lay all the points on the table. However, everything will go down to individual preference and other factors such as country of residence and current phone. If you use a Samsung phone and your country does not have NFC technology yet, consider using Samsung Pay. However, if you have any Android device with NFC technology and your country has point-of-sale machines with NFC support, consider using Google Pay.
