Samsung Pay website seemingly confirms Samsung Pay Mini and Bixby

If what we see on the Korean version of the Samsung Pay beta website is any indication, the electronics giant might indeed be preparing to launch a “mini” version of its mobile payment platform as well as the long-rumored AI character Bixby.

Rumors indicating that Samsung might be launching Samsung Pay Mini have been around for quite some time now. Originally, it was thought to be an app specifically for online transactions: you would store your card information within the app and use it for online purchases, all protected by your fingerprint and/or a password, of course. The interesting part was that this app would store electronic receipts of your purchases as well and would work on any Android or iOS device. Unfortunately, we never really saw any more details emerge after that. Until now that is.

If you go on Samsung’s Korean Samsung Pay beta website, you will see that in the drop-down menu, there is an option for “Mini.” Although clicking that takes you to a generic Samsung Pay Terms and Conditions form, we can’t help but think that the launch of the rumored Samsung Pay Mini app is nearing. Online purchases only account for around 20 percent of transactions made on Samsung Pay as of now, so investing in this area might make sense for the company. Plus, if rumors are true, Samsung Pay Mini may come to PC and Mac computers in the future, which is something that I would love to see.

Well, the surprise doesn’t end there. In the drop-down menu, we see another very familiar name, and that is Bixby. Back in November, we reported that Samsung had trademarked Bixby and Kestra, a male and a female voice assistant respectively. That’s following its acquisition of Viv, a start-up company whose creators made Siri. Rumor has it that the Galaxy S8 – like all the other upcoming smartphones this year ­– would heavily rely on AI and might even have a dedicated button for it.

While there have been reports indicating that Google is not happy with Bixby’s presence, it looks like Samsung may still ship its upcoming Galaxy S devices with its own virtual assistant on board. And if I had to guess, Bixby might be deeply integrated into Samsung’s payment platform – perhaps there’ll be finally someone to nag at me for spending too much money on stupid stuff, who knows!

At any rate, we are excited to see what Samsung has in store for us this year: whatever it is, I hope it doesn’t disappoint, considering the absence of its Note lineup last year. Are you excited for the Galaxy S8? Let us know by leaving a comment down below!