Samsung have today expanded Samsung Wallet to include Digital Key,giving BMW oners a host of new options to remotely interact with their car using their Galaxy phone.
Announcing the new feature for select Galaxy phones, Samsung said that BMW owner will be able to use the new feature first, though Samsung advise that there are ‘more car manufacturers expected to join in the future’.
Similar to the implementation by Apple in iOS first announced in 2020, Samsung’s addition of Digital Key to Samsung Wallet uses NFC and UWB on smartphones to ’lock and unlock their car doors’ simply letting them walk up to the door and open it without taking the phone from their pocket. Digital Key will also give owners the ability to ‘start their engines and share their Digital Keys with multiple drivers’.
The feature will begin rolling out to a select range of Samsung Galaxy S series, Note and Galaxy Z series phones running Android 13 and higher. The complete list includes:
- Galaxy S20 series: all models apart from S20FE
- Note 20 Series: Note 20, Note 20 Ultra
- Galaxy S21 series : S21, S21+, S21 Ultra, S21 FE
- Galaxy S22 series : S22, S22+, S22 Ultra
- Galaxy S23 series: S23, S23+, S23 Ultra
- Galaxy Z-Flip: Z-Flip 5G, Z-Flip3, Z-Flip4,
- Galaxy Z-Fold: Z-Fold2, Z-Fold3, Z-Fold4
Garry McGregor, Vice President of Mobile Experience at Samsung Electronics, Samsung Electronics Australia said
“The Samsung Wallet Digital Key solution helps simplify the everyday experience for our customers and provides them with convenience and peace of mind through a central and secure hub within their smartphones.
Our launch partnership with BMW allows Australians to use their Galaxy devices to seamlessly unlock car doors, start their engines and even share their Digital Keys, thereby offering our customers greater flexibility and convenience. We look forward to working with more car manufacturers in the future and onboarding them onto Samsung Wallet Digital Key.”
The feature will appear in a future update, to manually check for an update on your compatible Galaxy phone go to Settings > Software Update > Download and Install to find out if you’re running the latest software. Once the feature arrives you can check out the Samsung FAQ on adding the Digital Key to Samsung Wallet.
