Samsung Pay is getting a new update in India today, following one just three weeks ago. With the latest version, users will be able to use their Samsung phone to pay at merchants that support the country's UPI payment system by scanning barcodes. UPI, or Unified Payments Interface, is a Government of India initiative that lets people make payments and transfer money with even a basic phone as long as it is connected to a network operator, and it is now being enabled for merchants and retailers.
Merchants in the country will be able to opt for barcodes through the Bharat QR Code initiative; these barcodes will work just like the ones for wallets like Paytm, and Samsung Pay is getting in on the action early with support for Bharat QR code. In addition to Bharat QR Code support, the new update to Samsung Pay also brings Android Oreo compatibility, but that's not new and has already been made available with the last update. The Oreo beta for India (and other phase two countries) is yet to start, but once it does, Galaxy S8 users should be able to use Samsung Pay without issues.
The Samsung Pay update notification should pop up as soon as you open Samsung Pay. If it doesn't, you can go to the app's settings, hit the About Samsung Pay tab, then hit Update.
Thanks, Imaduddin!
