Garmin Vivoactive 3 owners rejoice, you should now be able to make payments from the wrist as Garmin Pay has been activated on the sporty smartwatch.
The contactless payment platform, powered by FitPay, will allow users to take advantage of the NFC tech on board to make purchases. It's a lot like the set up on an Apple Watch. So you no longer have to worry about carrying around some loose change for an emergency bottle of water when you're out running.
Read this: Contactless payments should come as standard on smartwatches
Garmin Pay supports Visa and MasterCard debit and credit cards letting you add cards to your Garmin Pay wallet. It's also adding more credit and debit cards from major banks with a list of the currently supported cards available on the Garmin Pay Participating Banks page.
The new addition means the Vivoactive 3 joins the likes of the Apple Watch, Samsung Gear S3, Fitbit Ionic and a legion of Android Wear watches in a bid to let your smartwatch replace your wallet or purse. The key now is whether Garmin can get all the major banks signed up to support Pay, something that Fitbit is still working on with its own payment platform.
We were big fans of the Vivoactive 3 when we tested it recently and it rightfully earned a nomination shout in our Smartwatch of the Year category at this year's Wareable Tech Awards. Payment support always felt like a good fit for Garmin's wearables, so here's hoping the feature makes the leap onto more of its watches and fitness trackers in the future.
Source: VentureBeat
How we test
By Michael Sawh
Michael Sawh has been covering the wearable tech industry since the very first Fitbit landed back in 2011. Previously the resident wearable tech expert at Trusted Reviews, he also marshaled the features section of T3.com.
He also regularly contributed to T3 magazine when they needed someone to talk about fitness trackers, running watches, headphones, tablets, and phones.
Michael writes for GQ, Wired, Coach Mag, Metro, MSN, BBC Focus, Stuff, TechRadar and has made several appearances on the BBC Travel Show to talk all things tech.
Michael is a lover of all things sports and fitness-tech related, clocking up over 15 marathons and has put in serious hours in the pool all in the name of testing every fitness wearable going. Expect to see him with a minimum of two wearables at any given time.