You can tap on and tap off on your local transport options across Australia in many ways, and if you have a Galaxy Watch, Samsung is reporting it should world there, too. Kinda sorta.
We live in a fairly digital world, and while you might still persist with paying cash in some places, there’s a good chance that you’re relying on electronic payments in some form.
Cashless is where we are, and while the covid pandemic helped make it more of a thing, we’ve been making strides to a cashless world even before it. Provided your bank has support for mobile payments, your phone can pay for things, as can a wearable you might have in your life, as well.
In fact, if you have a wearable and live in Sydney, Brisbane, or Adelaide, you may be able to use that wearable to tap on to buses and trains.
Most mobile payment systems have offered it for some time, and even Samsung offered aspects, too. Primarily, the change seems to be about steps, with what used to be a multi-step situation now a single-step one, even if it’s one Samsung was looking into years ago.
Previously, you’d need to keep your watch and phone unlocked to use the tap-on feature, making it a little cumbersome to wrestle with PIN-codes at the terminal, rather than simply tapping on like you would with a card.
The company has chimed in recently to note that Samsung Pay has been connected to work with public transport payment systems in three of Australia’s major cities, and will now support that simple “tap on” method, basically allowing you to tap a Galaxy Watch to a terminal and have you tap on.
Worth noting, however, that Samsung did confirm this is tapping on with your debit or credit card, and not your transport card. For instance, if you use Opal in Sydney, Samsung’s tap-on addition won’t use an Opal card, digital or otherwise, instead using a Visa or MasterCard card connected to Samsung Pay.
