Samsung now offering new digital student ID support in your own Wallet app. Galaxy users, specifically those with recent A, S or Z series devices, will be able to pull out their campus card for one-tap access to facilities and food at supported institutions with the same ease as Samsung Pay.
In my day, we had to carry ugly plastic student ID cards to tag ourselves in smelly weight rooms and eat dry burgers on a meal plan. Today, some students have gone to school and earned a four-year degree without needing to carry a physical card.
At first, Android phones occasionally had to rely on a dedicated app for a particular school’s system, but then, companies like Transact helped universities build solutions that can also integrate cards into Google Wallet. That same solution will now allow students to add the NFC-touchable Campus ID to Samsung Wallet, if they choose. Samsung’s Wallet app officially returned last year to collect digital keys, payment cards, and even crypto.
Apple has had contactless student ID support for several years. Schools like Johns Hopkins in Baltimore electronic identifications enabled in 2019which nestled nicely in Apple’s Wallet app alongside the students’ early credit cards and concert tickets.
To add a supported school ID to Samsung Wallet, you’ll need to download the Transact eAccounts Mobile app from the Google Play Store, set it up, and add it to the wallet. Student IDs in Samsung Wallet will work even when users’ Galaxy devices are in standby mode, so a dead battery won’t lock them out of their dorm room at 3am
Not all Samsung devices will work; you will do it you need one of the following US model Galaxy phones with Samsung’s eSE embedded secure element and Android 12 or higher:
Samsung will also roll out student ID support on Galaxy Watches this fall. Although the company hasn’t provided a list of its wearables that will work, it’s safe to assume that at least one will.
Some of the first schools to support student IDs in Samsung Wallet include Penn State, the University of Florida, Central Michigan University, the University of North Alabama, and Stevens Institute of Technology. In total, the company is currently supported by 68 higher education institutions in the US.
