Question about Samsung Pay and NFC/MST

[thunderup]

I'm a relatively new Gear S3 user, having just received one from my wife for Christmas. I have it paired with my Pixel 2 XL and I've been really enjoying it over the last few weeks, and I'm loving the combo of Samsung Pay with MST on the watch and Android Pay with NFC on the Phone.

I do have a question about MST vs NFC on the watch, though. Currently, I have NFC disabled on the S3 and have been using MST with great success. However, a lot of the places I shop have NFC functional on their terminals. When I initiate Samsung Pay on the watch, does it automatically turn on NFC and would I have the option to use either method, or would I need to keep the watch's NFC chip always turned on to use that method? If I leave NFC turned on, does the watch broadcast both and would I be able to use either NFC or MST depending on the terminal?

 

[SpookDroid]

Yup, Samsung Pay will automatically try MST and NFC whether you have NFC off or not (and then turn NFC back off if you've disabled it in your device... MST, of course, only engages while in Payment Mode). Samsung Pay will do the work for you, but it will try to use MST first if it detects both options are possible, and if not, default to NFC. All you have to do is tap the right place on the terminal.

 

[thunderup]

That's great to hear. Thanks for the info!

 

[SpookDroid]

Sure