The top apps for payments and getting around are summarized below, so you can download them BEFORE you land at the destination. This saves you time and data costs.

Popular Local Payment & Transport Apps Guide

I've included both the iOS Apple App Store and Google Play Store links below.

For the payment apps that integrate with digital wallets such as Apple Wallet, you can start the installation from the digital wallet but it may require you download an app to complete setup or for reloading the wallet.

Google Maps is the default for most of you, so I didn't list it explicitly. In some cases I've listed local apps that are better than Google Maps, due to capabilities such as real-time bus location data for example. In South Korea, Google Maps is blocked for walking and driving directions, so you need the local apps.

Apple payments advantage over Google

Apple Wallet works better than Google Wallet in Japan, South Korea and Taiwan. It boils down to nuances in NFC standards, hardware/software region locks, and local mobile payment ecosystems. e.g. whether your Samsung phone was bought locally or not can be a factor.

Japan

Japan’s contactless infrastructure relies heavily on Sony’s FeliCa (NFC-F) standard rather than the standard NFC-A/B used in Western credit cards.

Apple builds FeliCa chips into all iPhones sold worldwide (iPhone 8 and newer), so Japanese IC transit cards such as Suica, PASMO, and ICOCA can be directly added into Apple Wallet without changing your region or device settings. There is also support for Express Transit Mode, which means you can tap your iPhone or Apple Watch at train gates without unlocking the device or authenticating via Face ID/Touch ID.

While adding and tapping works seamlessly globally, foreign-issued credit cards (especially foreign Visa cards) occasionally encounter 3D Secure network blocks when trying to top up transit cards inside Apple Wallet. Mastercard or American Express cards generally top up with higher success rates.

Android: Although many Android devices (like Google Pixels) have the required hardware internally supporting the FeliCa standard, Google historically limits FeliCa provisioning via software (Osaifu-Keitai / Japanese Google Wallet profile) to devices sold within Japan.

This means overseas Android phones (Samsung, Google, Xiaomi, etc.) generally cannot add Japanese transit cards (Suica/PASMO) to Google Wallet natively. Tapping an overseas Android phone at a Japanese train gate will fail, so you would need to open the app up first.

While you could enable Suica on a non-Japanese Android device via rooting or flashing regional firmware, that's not what I would recommend for the average person.

Apple wins.

Score: Apple 1, Google 0.

South Korea

South Korea, the payment landscape is historically unique. The country long relied on local, proprietary NFC and magnetic secure transmission (MST) standards anchored by domestic credit card companies and Samsung Pay, which delayed the rollout of global digital wallets.

Public transport (subways, buses, taxis) across South Korea relies on the T-money contactless system.

Apple Wallet support T-money natively. You can add a T-money card directly in Apple Wallet and assign it to Express Transit Mode. You do need to download the app, which I wrote about. No Korean phone number is required.

While you can top up digital T-money using Apple Pay inside the app, there are reports internationally issued Visa cards frequently fail or are rejected during the reload process. Overseas Mastercard, American Express, and UnionPay cards have significantly higher success rates.

You can work around the in-app/wallet top up failures by physically placing your iPhone on a ticket reload machine at a subway station and top up your digital T-money card using Korean Won cash.

If use cases outside of Tmoney, Apple Pay operates over the EMV NFC protocol in South Korea. It works great at both major international and domestic chains, including convenience stores (CU, GS25, 7-Eleven), Starbucks, department stores (Lotte, Hyundai), and major supermarkets and restaurants. See cash in Korea for how much cash I think you may need.

Google Wallet does not support T-money transit cards for standard or foreign Android devices.

Non-Korean Android users must download the KOREA TOUR CARD Tmoney app from the Google Play Store (download here). This app creates a digital transit pass that utilizes your phone’s background NFC.

Unlike Apple Wallet, the Android solution requires signing up in the dedicated app and setting "KOREA TOUR CARD Tmoney" as your phone's default NFC contactless payment app (instead of Google Wallet) so transit turnstiles recognize it. Apple clearly wins for the better user experience. The low Google Play store app rating should support my previous statement.

As of Oct 2026, Google Pay is not officially supported for in-store retail payments in South Korea. Tapping a phone using Google Wallet at a Korean POS terminal will generally result in an error. While it may work at a few places, it is definitely not broadly accepted enough for me to label it useful, primarily due to older card terminals. e.g. traditional markets, small cafes and shops may not accept it.

Apple wins.

Score: Apple 2, Google 0.

Taiwan

Taiwan relies primarily on standard NFC Type A/B for contactless payments, while public transport historically uses proprietary contactless chips for smartcards like EasyCard (悠遊卡) and iPass (一卡通).

Apple devices therefore cannot add EasyCard nor iPass directly into Apple Wallet. Apple and the EasyCard Corporation have been in prolonged integration talks, but a native Express Transit Card solution is not currently active.

Fortunately, many - but not all - MRT (subway in Taiwan) gates in Taipei and Kaohsiung have been upgraded to support contactless credit/debit cards, so you can pay using your physical credit/debit card or tap using Apple Pay.

You may run into at least one turnstile that requires the traditional EasyCard or iPass card. If you plan to take buses, that is likely to happen.

Google Wallet - just like Apple - cannot natively host standard digital EasyCards or iPasses for international users.

Taiwan-market (firmware/models) Samsung phones running Samsung Wallet is the exception as there is a special agreement between Samsung and EasyCard allowing users to provision a virtual EasyCard.

EasyCard operates an app called EasyWallet (悠遊付) that can be used if you have a local Taiwanese phone number and local ID/ARC verification. On select Android devices, the app enables phone tapping via custom NFC integrations or QR codes.

Tie between Apple and Google.

Final score: Apple 2, Google 0.

What about cash?

Despite increased digital wallet use, cash is still needed. Only the amount of cash needed changes. You can read about my thoughts on how much cash is needed for these places.