Your Samsung Galaxy Watch will use Samsung Pay by default – but it’s possible to change the payment service used by the smartwatch.
On the Samsung Galaxy Watch you can summon Samsung Wallet by pressing and holding the lower button. This can bring up payment cards as well as things like tickets, passes, and travel passes.
Samsung Wallet is much improved and has got even better during the last update for the Galaxy Watch 6.
But if you’re already a user of Google Pay, you can use this instead. But there are a few limitations to be aware of. Read on to find everything you need to know.
What you'll need:
- Google Pay account
- Samsung Galaxy Watch 4/5/6
How to make Google Pay your default service on Galaxy Watch
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1. Make sure you’ve downloaded Google Wallet on your smartphone. Ensure you're fully signed up, accepted all the terms and conditions, verified your card and are generally ready to go
2. Head to Settings on your Samsung Galaxy Watch
3. Choose Connections
4. Open NFC
5. Choose Google Pay as your provider.
When you hover your watch over a contactless pay point, it will now be Google Pay that opens, not Samsung Pay.
Create a shortcut for Google Pay
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But while you can now use Google Pay by default, Samsung has been extremely petty in not allowing third parties, e.g. Google Pay, to take over the use of the long-press button shortcut.
If you want, you can assign another shortcut to Google Pay. But you’ll have to sacrifice something.
To add Google Pay as a button shortcut on Galaxy Watch:
1. Go to Settings on your Galaxy Watch
2. Tap Advanced features
3. Tap Customize buttons
4. You can assign either long press or double press of the home button to Google Pay.
It’s not ideal as you will lose either the voice assistant or revert to the last used app feature, but it’s a way of getting Google Pay quickly to hand.
How we test
James is the co-founder of Wareable, and he has been a technology journalist for 15 years.
He started his career at Future Publishing, James became the features editor of T3 Magazine and T3.com and was a regular contributor to TechRadar – before leaving Future Publishing to found Wareable in 2014.
James has been at the helm of Wareable since 2014 and has become one of the leading experts in wearable technologies globally. He has reviewed, tested, and covered pretty much every wearable on the market, and is passionate about the evolving industry, and wearables helping people achieve healthier and happier lives.