Samsung will reportedly launch an app for online payments, dubbed Samsung Pay Mini

Although Samsung Pay has quickly become quite popular for payments at brick and mortar locations, online payments for Samsung Pay launched in February of 2016 and yet they have really failed to catch on in the way Samsung Pay’s in-store functionality has. According to a report from ET News out of South Korea, this has led to the creation of Samsung Pay Mini which will reportedly be released for phones running at least Android 6.0 Marshmallow or iOS 8 in the not too distant future.

• Samsung Pay vs Apple Pay vs Android Pay
• Samsung Pay: What is it, how does it work and how do I use it?

In the current version of the Samsung Pay app, online payments only account for around 20% of transactions. This is due to the relatively complex process of getting online payments to work with it. In its current state, online payments using Samsung Pay are not processed directly through Samsung Pay, but are processed by the credit card company itself. This is because Samsung would rather not pay a fee for the Payment Gateway, the service that processes the transaction. Because of this, the payment process is not as smooth as it could be. This is what Samsung Pay Mini aims to fix.

With the new app, all you have to do is load in your credit card information, or membership/ loyalty card details, and find something online to purchase. The Payment Gateway, which is now Samsung Pay, will input your details, and the payment will commence once you input a valid fingerprint or 6-digit pin. Even with this app however, a core problem with Samsung Pay may not be resolved: visibility.

Currently, Samsung Pay is preinstalled on the Galaxy S7 and S7 edge, but when the update arrived on the GS6 and S6 edge, which brought Samsung Pay compatibility, the app itself was not. This is contrast to when Apple Pay debuted on the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus, where the support came with an update, and overnight everyone who had installed the update had Apple Pay installed on their iPhone. This efficiency made it much easier for iPhone users to use Apple Pay. But as Samsung Pay is not preinstalled on Galaxy smartphones, it is likely that many people do not realize that Samsung Pay is available to them. This is the same problem the Samsung Pay Mini will liekly face, and while it will have to fight its way onto Android phones, it will have an even tougher time on iOS, where Apple Pay is already successful.

Samsung Pay Mini will be allegedly available in June and if it is successful, then Samsung hopes that a version of the service for Windows and OS X will be made available sometime after that. Will this be the proper solution to Samsung’s problems with online payments, or will this second app make the Samsung Pay ecosystem more confusing? Let us know your thoughts in the comments.