Google Pay vs Samsung Pay is a difficult choice to make. Both offer users a simple way to pay others, and they use Near Field Communication, or NFC, to achieve this. You can just tap your device against another device with an NFC chip and make payments without needing to use your physical card.
Google Pay is available for use in several countries, including the USA, Singapore, India, and more. Some of these countries have support for Google Wallet. Unfortunately, Google Wallet isn’t available in India at the time of writing. This article will compare Samsung Pay and Google Pay and explore the benefits of each.
A brief history of Google Pay and Samsung Pay
Samsung Pay was launched back in 2015. However, some countries have the same app with the name Samsung Wallet. This app combines Samsung Pay and Samsung Pass into one single app. It’s an app that collectively holds your digital IDs, payments, keys, and others. It’s similar to the Apple Wallet app on iOS. The app didn’t get the rename in its home country, South Korea.
Google launched the Google Wallet app in 2011 and another app called Android Pay in 2015. In 2018, they merged both apps into Google Pay. The most recent name for this app is Google Wallet in some regions. However, Google Wallet and Google Pay remain different apps. The GPay app is in India, Singapore, and the USA. In this comparison, we’ll focus on the Google Pay app and not the digital wallet app. Note that they’re identical in functionality.
Google Pay vs Samsung Pay: Availability & Compatibility
If you use an iPhone or if you use a phone that doesn’t run Samsung’s proprietary One UI software skin, you cannot use Samsung Pay. Samsung Pay is only for Samsung phones that run One UI, and Google Pay is a cross-platform app that anyone can download. GPay works on iOS and also on any Android skin, and Samsung tries to create a lock-in with Samsung Pay. The Google Wallet app doesn’t exist on iOS, and tap-to-pay doesn’t work either.
The Samsung Pay app currently works in 15 countries. GPay is only in three countries, but the Google Wallet app is in 66 countries. Both of the payment apps work with almost any of your bank cards in the USA. More banks and local networks are adding support for GPay each day. All the popular banks support this app, and it’s difficult to find ones that don’t support it.
Both the apps support gift cards and membership cards. You also get support for transit cards and the ability to hold your tickets. The apps still rely on your phone number to operate. Some airlines also support storing your airplane tickets in the Google Pay and Samsung Pay apps.
Payment Options
Both Google Pay and Samsung Pay support NFC, and you can make physical payments if you just tap your phone on a card reader that supports NFC. However, many merchants do not support cardless NFC payments, and they may not have compatible card machines. In countries like India, you can just scan a QR Code to make payments using UPI technology, which is unavailable in many other countries.
Older Samsung phones have MST (Magnetic Secure Transmission), and you can use this for payments, but it doesn’t use NFC tech. However, the newer phones do not support NFC, and Samsung has discontinued this service. Samsung also dropped support for MST in the USA with the S21 lineup of phones. It was earlier one of Samsung’s major advantages over Google Pay. This advantage isn’t there anymore. Google Pay and Samsung Pay are now commonly accepted platforms across most retailers today.
Security
NFC payments are secure as long as you protect your phone with a strong PIN or Passcode or if you have a reliable biometric method like Face ID and Touch ID/ Fingerprint Scanner. NFC is a lot more secure than using a regular physical Credit or Debit Card. That’s because NFC has an extra layer of authentication, and it’s hard for your data to get compromised. Your phone does not store your actual card number, and you get a virtual card number. This virtual number is what the card reader identifies when you tap to pay, and it’s difficult to steal card information this way.
Samsung still has a theoretical leg up in the security department. Samsung has Knox security, which many people trust a lot more with security. Google Pay also has data encryption and built-in authentication. However, Knox is both a hardware and software component, and it’s proprietary. Knox security is built into most Samsung phones you buy today. It’s also available with their cheaper F, A, and M series of phones, and it’s extremely reliable with data and security. It gets frequent updates to boost security as well. However, just about any phone with a physical hardware chip like Google’s Titan chips or Apple’s Secure Enclave will also perform the same.
Rewards from payments
On the Samsung Pay app, you’ll see a page that says Cashback. You can make purchases to earn cash back, and there are scratch cards like BarkBox. However, Google Pay’s rewards are a lot more practical. You get Scratch Cards, which directly offer cash, and you also get coupons for many online stores. Samsung Rewards is also part of Samsung Pay, and you can earn points while shopping with Samsung Pay. You can redeem these points later on the official page or on Samsung’s app. While Google’s direct reward system is better, Samsung at least has a point system for rewards, which Google completely lacks.
Google Pay vs Samsung Pay: Conclusion
If the exclusive Samsung features like the Samsung Reward Points, storing cards to your Samsung Account, the deals and promotions, and the Knox security benefits, then Samsung Pay is a great choice if you own a Samsung device. If you’re on a Samsung device and are confused between Samsung Pay and Google Pay, the difference just comes down to which UI you prefer.
Samsung’s ecosystem integration is strong, and you even have Samsung Pay on the Galaxy Watch. If you don’t have a Samsung device, then Google Pay is the only other option, and it’s every bit as good in most categories that matter. It’s definitely not worth getting a Samsung phone just for the Samsung Pay app. However, if you’re in the Samsung ecosystem, then Samsung Pay is more convenient since it’s a first-party app, and you don’t have to install another payment app.
