Samsung this month will begin supporting a new peer-to-peer Tap to Transfer feature through the Samsung Wallet, providing another way for users to tap their smartphones together to send one another cash without the need for an app.
Tap to Transfer is similar to Tap to Cash, a feature that Apple introduced in iOS 18, and Apple's Tap to Pay on iPhone. With Tap to Cash, Apple users with an iPhone or Apple Watch can send or receive Apple Cash by holding two devices next to each other. The transfer happens using NFC, and no personal information like phone number or email is shared.
Tap to Pay on iPhone is an option that allows independent sellers, small businesses, and larger merchants to use an iPhone as a contactless payment terminal to accept payments from other iPhone users, debit and credit cards that support tap payments, and other digital wallets. Tap to Pay on iPhone does still require a payment app like Shopify, Square, or Clover, but Tap to Transfer from Samsung does not.
Samsung's Tap to Transfer option lets Samsung users quickly send payments to anyone with a debit card that supports tap features, even if that debit card is stored in another digital wallet like Apple Wallet. As long as the Samsung user has a Samsung Wallet with an eligible Visa or Mastercard debit card, they can send money over NFC to another person without a Samsung Wallet.
Through Samsung's collaboration with Visa and Mastercard, you can use a debit card stored in your Samsung Wallet to send money to friends and family members' bank accounts without needing to download an additional app. Instead, Samsung Wallet uses NFC technology to connect to the recipient's debit card stored in their digital wallet. Plus, you can even transfer money to people without a digital wallet as long as they have a physical debit card with tap-to-pay capabilities.
With Tap to Transfer, a Samsung user can easily send payments to anyone, including an iPhone user, but there is no equivalent feature for an iPhone user to send a payment to a Samsung user because Apple Cash is more limited, and Tap to Pay on iPhone requires a secondary payment service.
Samsung users will also be able to tap two Samsung devices together to send payments, similar to the iPhone's Tap to Cash option.
