Google Wallet's one advantage over Samsung Wallet actually matters every single day

Published Jul 18, 2026, 1:45 PM EDT Bertel is a lifelong tech enthusiast with over a decade of experience writing thousands of articles about Android devices, Linux, and more. Before joining the How-To Geek team, Bertel wrote for the likes of MakeUseOf, MakeTechEasier, and Android Police—at the latter he wrote over 3,500 articles. He delights in helping others decide which tech to bring into their lives... and which tech to do without. Bertel graduated from the College of William and Mary in 2012 with degrees in History and Government. He has spent his entire career as a tech journalist covering Android, Linux, wearables, smart home devices, and more. When I carried around a Samsung Galaxy phone every day, I used Samsung Wallet for tap-to-pay. Now that I've switched to a Motorola Razr Fold, I'm using Google Wallet. In the process, I've learned the one key distinction that makes Google Wallet a more practical option in day-to-day life. Google Wallet is substantially easier to launch I barely need to think about it The process of using my phone to purchase something at a cash register is pretty straightforward. All I have to do is pull it out, double-tap my power button, and hold the phone near the payment terminal. My default payment card will then be used to make the purchase. To switch cards, I simply swipe horizontally after I’ve double-pressed the power button. Once I've made my selection, I don't need to tap anything. I simply hold my phone against a terminal. This is much smoother than the process I'm familiar with. On my Z Fold 6, I activated Samsung Wallet by swiping up from the bottom of my screen. Then I held my finger against the fingerprint reader and pressed my phone near the terminal. When everything goes smoothly, Samsung Wallet is every bit as fast to access, if not faster. The problem is that everything doesn't always go smoothly. Motorola Razr Fold Motorola's Razr Fold (2026) is its first book-style foldable Android phone, offering high-end performance and cameras. Opening Samsung Wallet can be a pain It doesn't always do what I expect Credit: Bertel King / How-To Geek The default gesture to open Samsung Wallet is to swipe up from the bottom of the screen. This makes sense if you stick to Samsung's default three-button layout, but I don't. On any Samsung device, I immediately switch to gesture navigation, which immediately puts Samsung Wallet and my phone's system navigation at odds. Fortunately, I can disable Samsung Wallet on my home screen. I set the app to activate either by swiping up from the bottom of my lock screen or swiping my screen when the display is off. You can make the same change within Samsung Wallet by tapping the settings icon and going to Quick Access > Swipe-Up Gesture and tapping the relevant toggles. Here's the problem—I rarely ever saw my lock screen. Thanks to a side-mounted fingerprint scanner, the first thing I did when picking up my phone was unlock it. In practice, this meant that attempting to make a payment with Samsung Wallet often involved pulling my phone out of my pocket, unlocking it, and then relocking it before swiping up from the bottom of the screen. Smooth. Real smooth. Samsung Wallet is much easier to activate by accident I've had to close the app more times than I can count With Samsung Wallet, it's not uncommon for me to look down at my phone and see that it's waiting for me to tap my phone and make a payment. It’s quite easy to activate by accident. I know I'm not alone in this, as I've watched my spouse do the same thing with their Galaxy Z Fold 5. The feature is so easy to activate when you don't want to. In a small way, this isn't just an annoyance. This can be a privacy risk. Sure, I'm not likely to accidentally activate Samsung Wallet near a payment terminal, but I can accidentally open it near others briefly, flashing which cards I have along with the last four digits. I don't expect friends or colleagues to do anything with this information, but it can be awkward, like dropping your wallet. There are scenarios where you may not want people to note that you're carrying around a platinum card. The opposite may also be true if you're in a setting where putting up appearances matters, and you can't quite keep up. I have never once opened Google Wallet by accident Defaults matter, and Google Wallet's defaults are good Credit: Bertel King / How-To Geek I'm not keen on giving Google my financial information, which is the primary reason I chose Samsung Wallet over Google Wallet on my Galaxy phone in the first place, in addition to other reasons to prefer Samsung Wallet over Google Wallet. But I must admit, after living with Google Wallet for a while, it has never once been the nag that Samsung Wallet can be. Google Wallet is there when I want it and not there when I don't. For the kind of app that it is, this is vital. It's enough to make me not want to go back. Google Wallet is now my preferred tap-to-pay option I've removed most Google apps from my phone. I don't use Gmail, I don't back up anything to Google Photos, and I only back up a handful of apps to Drive. On Galaxy phones, I generally prefer using Samsung apps instead. Yet for the time being, Google Wallet has joined Maps and YouTube among the apps I keep around. It really is a convenient way to pay. Though if you are a fan of Samsung Wallet, there is no reason you can't use both.