The list of mobile payment options keeps growing on a day to day basis. At the moment, Android has Samsung Pay and Android Pay whereas iOS has Apple Pay.
These are just but a few of the names in the industry at the moment and before it more come in, let’s take a look at what Android users have to get from Android Pay and Samsung Pay.
As mentioned, these two mobile payment services are available to Android users. However, not all of them can access the two services. While Android Pay can be accessed by all compatible Android devices, it is only possible to use Samsung Pay on select Samsung Galaxy smartphones.
Samsung Pay and Android Pay are very similar in their being, however, they have their own differences as well. The basic part of the two services is the fact that both require one to link a credit card to the service on the phone. Once this is done, you only need to use the phone to make one-time payments at any supported terminals.
As mentioned earlier, Samsung Pay is available only on supported Samsung Galaxy phones. On the other hand, you can still use Android Pay on Samsung Galaxy devices, but it is not possible to use Samsung Pay on non-Samsung Galaxy phones, for instance, LG G5 or Huawei P9, just to name but a few. More differences stem from the fact that these two use different methods to exchange data between participating parties.
Where Android Pay depends on NFC and HCE chips to send and receive data, Samsung Pay still relies on NFC chips but comes in with a technology known as Magnetic Secure Transmission. With this, Samsung Pay beats Android Pay in that it can be used at almost any store as long as it accepts swiping of cards.
Both Samsung Pay and Android Pay are slowly expanding to the international market, with the former being the latest to spread its wings in Europe by launching its services in Spain. However, with Apple Pay still doing great in major markets around the world and the likes of LG, Huawei, and Xiaomi reportedly readying their own mobile payment services, it won’t be an easy sail for the two main names in the industry at the moment.