Doctor of Credit reported a sad development yesterday: Samsung has confirmed that the latest generation of Samsung Galaxy S phones (the S21, S21 Plus, and S21 Ultra) will no longer have MST technology. That’s a bummer for those who want to use mobile payments at merchants without upgraded terminals.
Samsung phones (and the Samsung Gear S3 watch) have a mobile payment solution called Samsung Pay. This is similar to Apple Pay or Google Pay with a key difference: whereas Apple and Google technology rely on what is known as NFC (near field communication) that requires the merchant to have an NFC-enabled credit card terminal, Samsung Pay works nearly everywhere since it can run on NFC or MST. The pandemic has certainly led to more widespread adoption of those newer terminals with NFC and the widespread acceptance of NFC payment technology is indeed why Samsung is abandoning MST.
The magic of Samsung’s MST technology is that it doesn’t require anything special from the credit card terminal. MST essentially mimics the magnetic strip of a credit card. You hold the phone (or watch) up to the part of the terminal where you could ordinarily swipe a card and it basically tricks the terminal into thinking that a card was swiped. As a Samsung Galaxy Gear S3 watch owner, I’ve often gotten a laugh out of a cashier jumping to tell me that mobile payments won’t work with their terminal only to be stopped mid-sentence when the transaction goes through.
The nice thing about having MST technology is that it works almost everywhere that you could otherwise swipe a credit card. Again, as more and more merchants have installed newer NFC-enabled terminals, the value of that MST technology has plummeted for most people. Since I live in a rural area where there are still a lot of older terminals, I enjoy having my Gear S3 watch. I’ll note that Samsung stopped putting MST technology in watches after the Gear S3, but they continued in their major phones until now. While Samsung Pay also uses NFC, I do wonder whether the days of Samsung Pay are numbered as the differentiators that separate it from competitors (like MST and the rewards program) are disappearing.
All hope isn’t lost for those who want MST capability. MST was originally known as Loop Pay. As Doctor of Credit notes, the founders of Loop Pay are working on a new device that attaches to your keychain and essentially works the same way. They had an indiegogo crowdfunding campaign last year and are expecting to ship their first batch of devices in April. I backed that campaign out of a nerdy desire to play with a new credit card-related tech toy. The value I see in it is that, unlike my watch, the OSV Valet supposedly runs for up to 3 months on a single charge. That would be a lot more convenient than remembering to charge my watch every other day. We’ll see how it goes and which banks are available when it launches.
Overall, I am sad to see Samsung abandon MST. I always expected to buy a Samsung phone at some point, I’ve just gotten stuck in a loop of Google Pixel deals that have made it hard to get a Samsung phone in my household. For now, I’ll have to settle for the watch and hope that OSV Valet works out to be something useful.
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That’s really unfortunate. I have had Samsung Galaxy phones since they first came out because of quirks like MST, removable batteries (long gone), SD card slot etc. I loved to surprise cashiers with the MST trick. Bought the S21 but running out of reasons to stay loyal to Samsung.
Well, this is horrible for Altitude Reserve fans which is pretty impossible to beat anytime Samsung Pay works since it is basically a 4.5% cash back card if you know what you are doing……so now I know my next samsung will be the last one with MST and I’ll use it until I die. 🙂
Cripes, I put $3K on it buying a car recently and it was an old terminal……
You can hold out hope that the OV Valet works with US Bank and catches on well enough to outlast your next Samsung phone, though I think that is unfortunately optimistic.
I backed the ov valet also. hope it works as it’s supposed to
What was the point of Samsung buying LoopPay, the creators of MST, for $250M in 2015 if they were going to abandon the technology six (five) years later?
This seems like another anti-consumer move by Samsung, just like when they got rid of SD storage on the S6, brought it back for the S7, and then removed it again for the Note 20 and S21. So in 2021, no headphone jack, no IR blaster, no heart rate and UV sensors, no charger, no SD card, and no MST. eSim is still not available, along with passive dual-SIM.
But we do have five cameras. FIVE. It coincides with the number of fingers on one hand. I’m sure in a few more years, it’ll go up to ten cameras…for the other hand. Yay.
The Note 20 has SD storage-at least the Ultra version does…
IR Blaster. The good ol days. Was actually telling someone about this on Friday as were were in a hotel trying to watch something on a Chromecast and using the hotel’s limited remote.
That is yet another useful feature that Samsung has eliminated over time ( headphone jack, SD card slot, charging block, etc.). They’re going down the drain and soon may lose me as a Samsung customer
they keep making the pie smaller but price of that pie is increasing. Go ahead Samsung make me dislike you more every day
Samsung is starting to be like Google. Once they find a feature people like they kill it a few years later. How many messaging apps has Google had? Music apps? I bought the Note Ultra and it might be my last phone. Might end up with an Apple in a few years.
Well, the only reason I use Samsung Pay is because it works so many places, and the only reason it works so many places is because of MST. So, goodbye Samsung Pay, it was nice while it lasted.
Same here. It is the key reason I’ve used Samsung phones and have refused to upgrade my S3 watch.
I have left out the house many times without my wallet and didn’t bother thinking about turning around to go get it because of Samsung Pay.
The positive side is it now gives me a chance to try/play with other phones as the playing field is now pretty much levelled.
That’s true. For me, I’ll probably stick with Samsung phones as they have other features I like, but Samsung has kind of forced me into a decision of: keep my current phone and don’t upgrade to a new Samsung phone, or stop using Samsung Pay. Because IMO Google Pay is superior in every other way, but Samsung Pay’s vastly superior compatibility was a deal breaker. I imagined I’m not the only one who feels this way. Doesn’t seem like making customers choose between using their service or buying a new phone from them benefits Samsung, not sure why they’re taking this route.