Galaxy Z Flip cover displays finally support Google Wallet

Summary

• You can now use Google Wallet on the cover screen of Samsung’s Galaxy Z Flip 5 and Z Flip 6, enabling faster mobile payments access.
• You’ll need to use Samsung’s Good Lock MultiStar widget to add the app to the cover screen.
• Unfortunately, Google Assistant and Gemini support are still missing from the MultiStar widget for quick access.

Over the past few years, Samsung has made waves with the evolution of its foldable phones. Both the Z Fold and Z Flip series have only gotten better with each launch. That being said, this doesn’t mean there’s not room for improvement. Z Flip owners, for example, have been yearning for more functionality on the cover screen. Now, it seems that there may be a viable workaround as preorders of the Z Flip 6 begin pouring in — and Google Wallet users may want to take note.

We’re not entirely sure when support was added, but when testing our new Galaxy Z Flip 6, we noticed the MultiStar widget now lets you add Google Wallet to the cover screen. After further investigation, we realized this is also the case on the Galaxy Z Flip 5, so either a MultiStar or Google Wallet update enabled the functionality, or it came in with the One UI 6.1 update.

To use the feature, you’ll need to take advantage of the cover display widget provided by Samsung Good Lock module MultiStar. If you’re new to Samsung devices, Good Lock is the first-party customization suite that can be downloaded to Galaxy phones. If you have a Z Flip 5 or Z Flip 6 with the One UI 6.1 or higher, you can add Google Wallet using the instructions in the following guide:

While it had already been possible to use Google Wallet without opening the Z Flip 5 by tapping the phone to a payment terminal, which automatically launches the default mobile payments app and uses the default card to pay, you still had to open the phone in order to switch credit cards or pull up a loyalty card. When the phone first came out, people tried this Good Lock MultiStar workaround, but found that Google Wallet simply didn’t launch when added to the widget. Now, it works as intended.

Google Assistant and Gemini support is still missing

As Android insider Mishaal Rahman noted in an update on X (formerly Twitter), the MultiStar widget also gives you convenient cover display access to documents like your boarding pass via Wallet. However, you still can’t queue up Google Assistant or Gemini directly from the cover screen. So while payments have improved, Samsung still has work to do in order to make its cover screen as useful as the one on the new Motorola Razr+, which handles such features without any add-ons.

Perhaps one of the benefits of the latest Z Flip and Z Fold devices that may come as a relief is their seven-year OS support. As explained at launch, both the Z Flip 6 and Z Fold 6 will get seven years of full OS support from Samsung. This means that if there’s something you don’t like about the phone right off the bat, it could be improved upon via an update in the future. As more people get their hands on the devices and voice their concerns, this wouldn’t be too surprising.