CNET
Samsung Pay just killed its best feature on the S21
Samsung has removed MST, or magnetic secure transmission, from the US editions of the Galaxy S21 phone and all future Galaxy phones sold in the US. This feature let you pay at almost any terminal, even ones that don’t support NFC or mobile payments.
Alex de Leon
February 21, 2021 at 10:03 pm
Disappointed. In my country, there are many stores with the old card readers, I used to surprise some people while paying with my Samsung.
I won’t forget one person asked to me; “what are you trying to do? Are you trying to hacked it?” So funny.
Chris Greene
February 21, 2021 at 10:16 pm
This is such an Apple move
It's Entertainment
February 21, 2021 at 10:21 pm
Missing in India too.
Luigi
February 21, 2021 at 10:28 pm
Does the MST remain available at S21 on other countries?!
bret frelow
February 21, 2021 at 10:33 pm
I’m with you I’m moving to google pay now that Samsung is no longer going to use mst see ya sam
james westgarth
February 21, 2021 at 10:34 pm
To retailers in America have to buy the machine and not rent it? For S Poss terminals?
Paul Ho
February 21, 2021 at 10:34 pm
To ONLY remove it from US devices seems so rude. I don’t even have a Galaxy phone but it’s crazy how Ralphs/Kroger is still sticking to their own platform.
jjcoolaus
February 21, 2021 at 10:39 pm
A lot of people never knew this existed. Do samsung phones outside the USA support it? How can you tell if you have it or not, apart from trial and error?
tanzanable
February 21, 2021 at 10:39 pm
Samsung is going in the WRONG direction! I’ve switched to Google Pay. MST, removeable batteries, headphone jacks and micro SD card storage are all gone now. So sad! Everything that made Samsung great is been taken away!
Marechan28 Gaming
February 21, 2021 at 10:40 pm
That’s great I can still use it . I have the s20 ultra and gear s3 frontier.
Marechan28 Gaming
February 21, 2021 at 10:44 pm
MST is the best feature of the gear S3 frontier that why I won’t get rid of it.
Jolan Rensen
February 21, 2021 at 10:49 pm
It was awesome but such a US-only problem. In the Netherlands I haven’t paid by card in years, it’s been all NFC and my phone (or watch with a proxy). Banks have supported it on phones since 2015 and now even random parking meters support nfc payments.
Magnetic swipes have also been blocked for over a decade in europe since it’s just unsafe, so it’s chips and nfc all the way now.
Samuel Escobar
February 21, 2021 at 10:57 pm
Does their deduction has to do with chip and pin? Could be.
hockeygal4ever_Bev
February 21, 2021 at 11:25 pm
I’ve loved being able to use the MST ability for years! I shop local often, which also means small biz in many cases. Farmstands, local eateries, food trucks, pop ups….. all places that would say “oh we don’t support phone pay” to which I’d say, “I’ll bet u do with mine !” It really helped small & local biz! I’m disappointed that they’d remove this feature! 😔
Michael
February 21, 2021 at 11:39 pm
Next, the Usb port!😆
Ernest Lee Dunbar
February 22, 2021 at 12:07 am
Y’all did this just for me thank you
Mr Tanev
February 22, 2021 at 12:14 am
bruhhh… it’s the 21st century… can’t believe ya’ll are still crying about MST… Every goddam terminal has NFC nowadays..
Bart Pola
February 22, 2021 at 12:19 am
I reallly feel like this feature was not well enough advertised…I didn’t know about it till it was removed! Would love to see the feature come back and have multiple options for payment. I would love to leave my wallet at home and just my phone for everything.
JT M
February 22, 2021 at 12:23 am
I’ve had samsung devices since the s4 ….never used it. I prefer physical card
Rigdy Lection
February 22, 2021 at 12:27 am
Why google pay? Why not garmin pay?
Dan Bullock
February 22, 2021 at 12:30 am
Maybe HEB will take Apple Pay now
_mrawesum
February 22, 2021 at 12:32 am
Especially considering that you dont have to enter in a password if your phone is unlocked with google pay.
Because of MST I made myself use samsung pay, but on my LGv35 i used google pay and that was just so much more ‘user friendly’ for lack of a better word.
Harith's
February 22, 2021 at 12:50 am
Samsung didn’t kill mst, US are too slow to change to NFC.. Ironically this also the country that invent google pay and apple pay..
Amr Metawie
February 22, 2021 at 12:52 am
I’m not upgrading my phone as I use MST almost everyday.
MrJojo2go
February 22, 2021 at 1:11 am
RIP MST aka Loop mobile as a Kickstarter before Samsung purchase the company.
Nancy Guthrie
February 22, 2021 at 3:28 pm
Well, there goes Samsung Pay. It’s useless without that feature.
Brendon B
February 22, 2021 at 3:35 pm
I don’t understand them taking away this feature… you have to have a coil for wireless charging… and reverse wireless for charging other devices… so… the hardware is there, yet they are taking it away…
SuzanoSho
February 22, 2021 at 3:43 pm
I’m gonna be that guy here- The problem isn’t with Samsung, the problem is with store owners unwilling to upgrade their point of sale technology to support as many payment options as possible. Why would you not want to get on board with NFC as soon as possible? Contrary to what this lady says in the video, it is NOT a large investment to upgrade your systems to support it at all, hardware included…
Tim Sawyer
February 22, 2021 at 8:34 pm
I guess “agree to disagree”. Many smaller retailers have little-to-no “extra” funds to invest in infrastructure upgrades; heck, they’re taking a beating when they have to add on the %age for every credit/debit transaction!
skifree
February 22, 2021 at 10:27 pm
@Tim Sawyer The question is what makes the situation in the US this stubborn to adopt NFC terminals..I understand if contactless was considered bleeding edge technology. But this is common place in the vast majority of the world.
I don’t know how the US structured it, but up here in Canada EVERY merchant has an NFC terminal for the past 10 years. Adoption was almost completely driven by the liability shift to EMV cards and contactless payment was just given as a freebie as the vast majority of EMV cards have an imbedded contactless circuitry (Actually more often than not, most people up here use contactless with their actual card. contactless phone payments is rarely used even though they are intercompatiable .
Assuming that the US liability shift went smoothly…Do you guys actually have EMV terminals but don’t take contactless? It just seems bizarre considering the vast majority of the cost would be the EMV tech, not the rfid radios needed for contactless payment.
Tim Sawyer
February 22, 2021 at 11:29 pm
@skifree well, I’m not a retailer, but we are decidedly free-market-based, so we don’t have a lot of incentives from the government (e.g., subsidies) to upgrade, like I THINK some other countries have. Even mom-and-pop stores have to purchase equipment, and many took a chance just to buy the “cheap” stuff to even allow credit card purchases in the first place. And like I said, they’re taking a hit (3% on every purchase, if I’m not mistaken) every time they allow it, but feel like they have to just to stay in business. Also, NFC doesn’t seem cutting-edge to many, but in rural areas there’s just not much demand for it, so retailers don’t offer it, so there’s not much demand for it, so… (see what I’m saying?). Therefore, it’s a pretty sizable expenditure to upgrade to a technology that may not even offer (at least not yet) much financial return. So, it’s just not as easy as folks think when they ask, “why don’t the business owners just…?” I hope that helps clarify things.
skifree
February 23, 2021 at 12:19 am
@Tim Sawyer As I asked before, didn’t you guys have a liability shift? that’s reason enough for the rest of the world to upgrade.
My point was, portraying new terminal upgrades as access to new “features” and if there is “demand for the new feature” is NOT how the rest of the world got nfc terminals. We got them because Credit Card companies basically mandated the use of new terminals and NFC just so happens to be getting cheap to where they just “came bundled” into them. Or in other words, the CC companies basically said “the new terminals are safer and they cut down on fraud…so use them and if we find out that you fraud was committed at your businesses and it was charged on magnetic stripe, then we come after you for the money”. It was never about features or demand, just the fear of the CC companies and adopting their new policies to take new terminals. The NFC and other features just came as bonus because it costs basically next to nothing to add them when you are committed to getting an EMV terminal anyways.
Tim Sawyer
February 23, 2021 at 12:34 am
@skifree interesting — I did not know this! But then again, like I said, I’m not a retailer. Why the banks would behave one way in the US and another way elsewhere, I don’t get that either (unless maybe it’s the way our regulatory system works?). (Or maybe they aren’t that different, and I just don’t understand how it all works.) All I really know about this whole situation is that many retailers can’t just afford to go out and get new stuff, which appears to be the way they would have to obtain NFC tech.
Don Mawele
February 22, 2021 at 3:49 pm
i think you worry about nothing..
Robin Cobb
February 22, 2021 at 3:50 pm
I think Apple and Google saw that MST, while useful five years ago, was not worth investing in because NFC would become the dominant payment option in short time… and they were right. Back then I kind of wanted MST on my iPhone but I quickly found that most of the time I could use NFC at most places that I shopped. Now, with Apple Pay on the Apple Watch, I don’t even need my iPhone and the process is much faster than using my iPhone!
Peepers 47
February 22, 2021 at 4:51 pm
Bummed! Samsung removing features that were unique to Samsung…. Hum, Is it time to go back to Apple? I’ll hold out as long as my S10+ holds up. I’ve stayed with my S10+ because of the blood oxygen level sensor… When expandable memory via a SD card goes, so do I.
Jatin Sahoo
February 22, 2021 at 5:03 pm
They removed the OP feature for which I bought my A51…🥲🥲
Shadow IV
February 22, 2021 at 5:20 pm
The one killer feature that set Samsung apart is now dead. All hail Apple!
Jacob Martin
February 22, 2021 at 5:45 pm
MST was the only reason I used Samsung Pay. Unfortunately Google Pay only accepts 5 card vs Samsung’s 10 card limit.
hundio88
February 22, 2021 at 5:53 pm
Killing mst support on the s21 ultra was the final nail in Samsung pays coffin. The in app ads and expiring rewards was ridiculous which is why I went back to google pay.
Wong Ling Shen
February 22, 2021 at 6:33 pm
I gonna buy the old Samsung and surprise ppl 10 years later.
Jason Thomas
February 22, 2021 at 6:54 pm
I totally agree that’s why I carry my gear S3 frontier around so I can shock people at the register with MST. I would just stick with google pay without MST. Samsung is losing their most unique mobile pay feature.
Tim Sawyer
February 22, 2021 at 7:20 pm
TOTALLY agree! MST is the MAIN reason my wife and I use Samsung Pay, and a BIG reason we’ve been faithful to Samsung phones. Some retailers (e.g., Walmart, I think in order to push their proprietary Walmart Pay system) have switched to systems that made Samsung Pay no longer work, or at least not consistently, but in the rural south there are still a LOT of places (like the article said, mainly mom and pop stores) that don’t offer contactless payment, so MST is still often the only way to pay with phones. I’ll keep my Note 10+ until it dies, (and my wife her S9+), I guess, but now there’s definitely one less BIG reason to buy Samsung. So sad! 😢
Truth Free
February 22, 2021 at 7:20 pm
That thing hardly worked for me anyway…so I don’t care.
Sean Peoples
February 22, 2021 at 7:44 pm
I wish Apple Pay had MST, I’d use it a heck of a lot more if it did…most of the stores around here still don’t support NFC payments.
George Orwell
February 22, 2021 at 8:53 pm
Great idea. But old fashioned now. Virtually all terminals in UK support NFC
Mladen Kafaliev
February 22, 2021 at 9:11 pm
bye
Darrel Froman
February 22, 2021 at 11:18 pm
I use MST on my Gear S3 and my S10+. I’m really going to miss it when it’s gone.
Overgallant
February 23, 2021 at 12:04 am
Samsung really needs to stop removing features🤦🏾♂️ it’s getting ridiculous at this point
Tse Hong Ling
February 23, 2021 at 12:48 am
I think America is slow in adapting NFC..catch up USA..you are falling behind in tech.
Chip based credit card is replacing magnetic strip based ones also.
w ramos
February 23, 2021 at 1:10 am
I love mst I was sad when it got remove from my watch.
Hamish
February 23, 2021 at 1:16 am
Magnetic strip was discontinued in most countries years ago. Some bank cards don’t even have magnetic strips anymore
Ayman Ibrahim
February 23, 2021 at 1:19 am
As long as there’s NFC we’ll be good to go.
TwiztedMannix87
February 23, 2021 at 1:19 am
This was definitely good for vending machines and smaller stores. I still got my samsung watch, so technically you can still have MST on you while having this phone.
Obi Dean
February 23, 2021 at 8:34 am
I’m kinda sad that Samsung is not the same anymore. Unlike other brands especially Apple, they used to bring excess features that sometime not many take advantage of but that’s part of its charm imo. Headphone jack, micro SD expansion, IR blaster, MST were awesome but now they’re extinct 🙁
tha8czar456
February 23, 2021 at 9:06 am
I hate samsung for it .they probably just brought it to do what their doing now patent it then kill it for no one else can use it these companies are so backwards.
Bohan Zhang
February 23, 2021 at 9:27 am
MST is not as secure as NFC. It is like the stripe on the credit card is not as secure as the chip.
Chris Wills
February 24, 2021 at 12:21 am
This is simply not true…it is actually the other way around.
GyanPrakash
February 23, 2021 at 9:57 am
Before: Samsung Galaxy Phones were
Designed For Humans.
Now: Designed For Apes.
GyanPrakash
February 23, 2021 at 9:57 am
She’s 🔥🔥🔥🔥
GyanPrakash
February 23, 2021 at 9:59 am
Is she Australian 🤔🤔🤔 Kinda!
Natito Alvarez
February 23, 2021 at 10:22 am
Samsung is trying to imitate Apple but that was special of Samsung it’s was different of iPhone, right now there no special difference between the two
Dster
February 23, 2021 at 11:24 am
They killed moobeam too :'( it was amazing feature
anoopktla
February 23, 2021 at 12:14 pm
It was the whole point of going with samsung😯
Álvaro Monsegur
February 23, 2021 at 12:22 pm
This is a Deal Braker… And i am a Samsung+Apple Combiner… Thats couragle!… to take a feature people use every day…
Steven Blocker
February 23, 2021 at 1:09 pm
I couldn’t agree with you more
1. I have loved MST and the fact that everyone was shocked when it worked. It was my favorite bragging feature when iPhone users were around.
2. There are nowhere near enough contactless payments. Can’t believe I have to go back to carrying around a credit card if I upgrade.
3. We’re in the middle of a pandemic…keep the feature!
4. I don’t feel like I get much from the Samsung pay points.
Currently have an S9+, I may upgrade to the S20 instead of the S21. When I lose MST, I’m going to google pay. Really really disappointed Samsung cut this feature. They should have held out for another 5 years before phasing it out.
André Gomez
February 23, 2021 at 2:09 pm
Since the S9, I’ve paid for almost everything using Samsung Pay’s MST and NFC. A very useful and safe resource.
Abu Adam 2020
February 23, 2021 at 2:37 pm
What? US still uses magnetic strip? Malaysia banned it since 2014. Now either wave or chip here.
cmann517
February 23, 2021 at 2:49 pm
I’ve had this conversation so many times, LOL!
Cashier: 🙅♀️ No our machines don’t do that!
Me: 🤳🏾 It just did.
Cashier: 🤯
cmann517
February 23, 2021 at 3:02 pm
I loved when it works but swiping MST 3 times was annoying.
sel18
February 23, 2021 at 3:09 pm
MST was a deciding factor for me when it originally came out. I was looking at different options, but having the ability to have contactless pay nearly everywhere before NFC was common was huge. When I learned that they were doing away with MST on the S21 line I seriously considered jumping to Apple for the first time in a very long time. In the end the camera on the S21 Ultra was the deciding factor for me this generation, but with phones being so good regardless of brand now (IMO) I don’t understand the rationale behind cutting such a differentiating feature. As it is, I don’t have any meaningful incentive to continue to use Samsung Pay. I would take an unscientific guess that the people who are in the android ecosystem mainly use Google Pay with Samsung user being the exception up until now. I don’t see that being the case anymore.
Clinton Roche
February 23, 2021 at 3:12 pm
I agree completely…. Once I upgrade and don’t have MST I will be switching back to Google pay.
Sr H
February 23, 2021 at 3:19 pm
I’ve been using Samsung Pay since s21 series came out and never had any problems yet.
E S
February 23, 2021 at 3:36 pm
1:02
Is that an ad inside the Samsung pay app ?
Video Biker
February 23, 2021 at 3:40 pm
This really shouldn’t come as any surprise. As more newer, bigger and better features come along, older features go the way of the dinosaur. I’m just willing to bet that has companies start going down the privacy road that Apple is currently going we will lose other features. I’m not saying that privacy is a bad thing, I actually value my privacy. What I am saying is that as that becomes the focus of the future smart phone business other lesser used features will fall by the wayside
Joshua Israel
February 23, 2021 at 3:42 pm
In the beginning it worked everywhere, but after a few years many terminals started to block it on purpose for example in lowes it stopped working, and in many other terminals
wsdjd 1356
February 23, 2021 at 4:59 pm
This might be due to EU regulations that make MST illegal for all intents and purposes. Losing a market of 550m people might impact it’s manufacturing strategy.
James Wilson
February 23, 2021 at 6:33 pm
Hasn’t MST been taken away a long time ago? At least in Sweden I haven’t been able to use it for more than a year. Used to love that feature and to never have to have my debit card with me
Michael Rodo
February 23, 2021 at 11:27 pm
I love blowing the mind of the post office employees with my phone. Then the next visit when they say “are you gonna use your phone again? “. Then I use my Gear S3 watch.
I’ve noticed that Walmart changed their checkout software and doesn’t accept MST nor NFC… forcing you to use ONLY their Walmart app.
Chris Wills
February 23, 2021 at 11:41 pm
MST was the only thing that kept me with Samsung, so after being exclusive to them for years, they may have just lost me.