Xiaomi launches its UPI-based digital payments app Mi Pay in India

As a precursor to the unveiling of the Redmi Go, Xiaomi announced its digital payments app for users, the Mi Pay. With this, India is the only other country after China where Mi Pay is available. Naturally, Xiaomi has tweaked the app to make it more India-centric as it prepares to take on services like Paytm, PhonePe among others.

Mi Pay is based on Unified Payments Interface (UPI) through which users can transfer money or even pay their utility bills. For mobile phone recharges and household bill payments such as electricity, gas and water, Xiaomi has tied up with Bharat Billpay which supports 120+ major vendors across India. 

Xiaomi's payment service allows users to initiate peer-to-peer transfers using the UPI ID with an option to directly transfer money to the receivers bank account. In addition, a QR code can be generated to pay or receive money from the Mi Pay app.

Mi Pay has also been baked into the MIUI and offers hassle-free ways to send or receive money right from the messages app or from the contacts list. The company has also added an option to pay via Mi Pay on its Mi India Store.

The app has a clean and slick interface and requesting or paying money happens in just a couple of clicks. Mi Pay uses Mi Account ID so there's no sign-up process involved if one already has an account. 

As far as the security of the payments app is considered, the Mi Pay app has been audited and approved by NPCI, Ernst & Young (EY) and Indian cybersecurity company Lucideus for penetration testing and vulnerability assessment. Additionally, Xiaomi also revealed that all user data from the Mi Pay app is stored in India itself.

• Also Read: Xiaomi launches entry-level Redmi Go in India starting at Rs 4,499