Mobile payments are taking off, particularly because of the convenience by which users can pay for goods and services on their smartphones, but having your smartwatch tethered to your smartphone is an unfortunate, though realistic, inconvenience for those who'd rather not pay a small fee for smartwatch cellular data.
First Internet Bank and Ally Bank are two that are helping ease the transition between paying on your smartphone and paying on your wrist. Recently, First Internet Bank has become one of the first banks (Ally Bank being the first) to add smartwatch support for mobile payments made from Android Wear and WatchOS platforms (LG Watch Urbane, the Apple Watch, Asus ZenWatch 2, etc.).
The key to being able to use First Internet Bank's newest apps is to make sure that your login credentials are stored on your smartphone (and are thus game for your smartwatch). We don't know if First Internet Bank will bring smartwatch support to the Gear S2, for example, but Ally Bank does intend to do so.
Android Wear (AW) and WatchOS (Apple) are the two dominant smartwatch platforms in terms of their sheer size, though Samsung's homegrown Tizen OS is stealing more marketshare and sales from AW. Apple still remains at the top of the smartwatch list, with the Apple Watch commanding 6.8% of the US market -- though Samsung isn't too far behind.
If you're a First Internet Bank customer, prepare to download the update to the app stored on your smartphone and follow the steps on-screen to enable smartwatch support. Then, once you're done, come back and let us know you got the update.
