ORIGINAL ARTICLE: Samsung Pay is having some major problems with non-Samsung devices. Several users have reported that they can no longer log in to their Samsung Pay account. They get an error message that says their ID is not valid. They are locked out of the app, effectively rendering it useless. Based on user complaints on Reddit and Samsung community forums, this issue started surfacing in recent weeks (via). The same ID works when logging into other Samsung services such as community forums. But it doesn’t let users log into Samsung Pay. Creating a new ID doesn’t help either. Some affected users reached out to Samsung Customer Care for help and the response they got was baffling. The representatives told them that Samsung Pay will no longer work on non-Samsung devices. A recent update brought this shocking change, they said. But we suspect that’s true. The customer care executives have likely made a mistake here. Samsung Pay works on the company’s first-party smartphones as well as other Android devices. Those using a Samsung Galaxy smartwatch particularly use the Pay app for instant payments even if they don’t own a Galaxy smartphone. The NFC chip on the watch lets them make payments securely regardless of their phone supporting the functionality. Since Galaxy smartwatches are quite popular in the Android space, the number of Samsung Pay users with a Samsung phone would be quite high. It’s unlikely for the company to abruptly stop supporting the app on those devices. Even if it plans to for some reason, the Korean behemoth would have given prior notice. Hopefully, the company will acknowledge this issue soon and provide an official statement on it.
Samsung recently merged its Pay app with Samsung Pass
This Samsung pay problem on non-Samsung phones started cropping around the same time when the company announced a merger of its Pay app with Samsung Pass. The Korean firm has already launched the Samsung Wallet app integrating the two apps’ key features. It can make secure payments, store credit and debit card information, passwords, flight boarding passes, cryptocurrencies, digital keys to your house and car, identification cards, loyalty cards, membership cards, and much more. The integrated Samsung Wallet app is only available in a few countries initially. It’s unclear if this restructuring of Samsung Pay has anything to do with the newfound issues on non-Samsung phones. But we hope the company fixes them quickly. Or is the Korean behemoth withdrawing support for third-party devices for real? We will let you know when we have more information.
