It’s not just the US where Galaxy S21 does not get MST for Samsung Pay

It was revealed earlier this week that the Galaxy S21 series Samsung Pay’s MST (Magnetic Secure Transmission) feature in the US is not missing. However, it seems that MST may be missing in more markets with the Galaxy S21 than we initially thought.

We can now confirm that the Galaxy S21, Galaxy S21 + and the Galaxy S21 Ultra also do not have MST in India, which means that you will not be able to make contactless mobile payments in places where there are no NFC machines. Samsung’s new luxury smartphones may short MST for Samsung Pay in more markets. However, it is not easy to determine exactly which markets still have access to MST with the Galaxy S21 series and which do not, because Samsung did not mention it in the official specification page on all its localized websites.

MST emulates the signal of the credit and debit card’s magnetic strip at PoS (Point of Sale) machines, enabling mobile payments where NFC is not available. NFC payments still do not occur in various markets, including India, making Samsung Pay’s MST feature a winner. However, Samsung tends to think that NFC has become enough that it can now remove MST from its smartphones. The South Korean firm has already stopped equipping its smartwatches with MST.

Samsung US has indicated that its future phones may not have the MST feature. Samsung acquired LoopPay in February 2015 for approximately $ 250 million for the MST feature. Whoever knew five years later, the acquisition would have been in vain.