We’ve been hearing for a few months that Samsung is developing a toned-down version of its mobile payments service called Samsung Pay Mini. It was initially believed that this service would be launched on iOS as well but a couple of months ago it was reported that Apple had rejected the Samsung Pay Mini iOS app and that Samsung did not plan on submitting the app once again for approval. Previous reports suggest that Samsung Pay Mini will be a stripped down version of Samsung Pay and will only be used to process online payments.
Samsung has officially announced the Samsung Pay Mini for Android launch today. The service is going to be launched in South Korea first within Q1 2017. The company has confirmed that this service won’t just be limited to its Galaxy smartphones. Samsung Pay Mini will work with any Android smartphone as long as it has a 1280×720 pixel resolution display or higher and Android 5.0 Lollipop or higher.
Samsung Pay Mini will offer online payment services for all supported Android smartphones. It will even enable users to use Samsung Pay services like lifestyle, membership and transportation. Those who want to make offline payments with Samsung Pay will need a compatible Samsung device as offline payments are not possible with Samsung Pay Mini. Samsung has also integrated a new shopping and rewards service with Samsung Pay Mini for customers in South Korea.
Ahead of the official launch of this new service, Samsung is going to conduct a pre-trial test on February 6th with Samsung Card in South Korea. Anyone with the card will be able to download a trial version of Samsung Pay Mini from the Google Play Store. Samsung will eventually bring this service to other markets as well but it hasn’t confirmed how long that’s going to take.
