Yesterday at the Mobile World Congress, MWC, Samsung announced a new app that will be very similar to Apple’s Passbook, called ‘Samsung Wallet’ along with an API for developers.  The app will let users manage on the mobile devices vouchers, boarding passes, coupons and tickets in much the same way as on Apple’s Passbook. At the moment the app will not be used as is for making mobile payments, with Samsung citing that users find it easier to use barcodes. But in a recent partnership with Visa’s NFC technology called PayWave, touch payment may appear as the app goes live.

In another Passbook functionality, Samsung Wallet will feature push notifications to let users know they are near a store where the app is accepted.

A handful of partners from the US will be integrated including Walgreens, MLB, Expedia, Booking.com, Hotels.com and Lufthansa. For developers the Samsung Wallet API and SDK is still in beta, but has allowed early sign-ups for its pending release on March 7th. The app itself is set to launch sometime in May with it being only available in the US to start of with.