Mi Pay is Chinese rival of such popular m-payment systems as Google Pay and Apple Pay
Mi Pay: what is it and why everyone wants to uninstall it. Source: shutterstock.com
While some people take loans to brag about their newest smartphones with the famous apple logo on them, others prefer budget phone models many of which come from China. This Eastern techno-hub also competes with the leading American brands in the financial sector. For instance, Mi Pay is Chinese rival of such popular m-payment systems as Google Pay and Apple Pay.
About Mi Pay
June 2019 brought some exciting news for the Xiaomi fans – the company partners with MasterCard to bring Mi Pay to the European continent. Why did this fact hit so many headlines?
Customers became excited to try out this m-payment system, as it differs from traditional mobile wallets by its flexibility and omnichannel nature. Namely, it uses QR-code scanning options along with regular NFC-enabled payments.
The system dates back to 2015 when it was launched by Xiaomi in partnership with UnionPay. Initially, it supported only national credit, debit and public transportation cards in China.
The system dates back to 2015 when it was launched by Xiaomi in partnership with UnionPay. Source: shutterstock.com
In three more years the service went across the border to make an impact in India. Here it engaged with ICICI Bank to adapt to national payment preferences. Here the system is based on Unified Payments Interface (UPI). Therefore, apart from sending and receiving money, Indian users can pay utility bills, mobile and broadband recurring charges with Mi Pay.
Availability
As of now, some functions of the payment system are still being tested in India. It was launched last December for users running MIUI beta and has now begun rolling out to stable builds. Xiaomi says that eventually, Mi Pay will be available on all of their phones, so long as you are on the latest MIUI version.
Currently, it is supported on NFC-enabled phones from the Mi-series such as Mi 2A, Mi3, Mi5, Mi5S, Mi5S Plus, Mi6, Mi Note 2, Mi Note 3, Mi Mix, Mi Mix 2. However, the NFC-versions of the company’s smart bands – Xiaomi Mi Band 3 NFC and newly presented Xiaomi Mi Band 4 – promise new payment opportunities even for the owners of budget models without an NFC-module installed.
During the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum – 2019, Xiaomi Inc and Mastercard declared strategic partnership to the Russian Federation. Together, they plan to introduce Mi Pay system in Russia and Ukraine. This service is expected to be launched there in the next few months.
Currently, it is supported on NFC-enabled phones from the Mi-series. Source: shutterstock.com
How to uninstall Mi Pay
While people in Russia and Ukraine anticipate the new technology, many users all over the world are puzzled about how to uninstall the app. When Mi Pay started beta testing in India, the company automatically added Mi Pay to the MIUI default package.
Yet, for most countries, where it’s inapplicable, it was just a waste of memory card space. So users flooded forums asking how to delete the app. Later, the company promised to fix the issue. Still, if the problem persists, you can uninstall it manually with a simple algorithm:
- Open “Settings” and proceed to “All applications”.
- Look for the Mi Pay icon, open it and tap “Remove Update”.
If it comes back automatically after a while, you know what to do.
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