Xiaomi Mi Band is about to offer something more than fitness health details.The smart wearable is all set to support mobile payment thanks to a new partnership with Alibaba’s payment service Alipay, as per a Reuters report.
Xiaomi and Ant Financial, an Alibaba affiliate which includes China’s most popular online payment service Alipay, will enable the Alipay Wallet mobile app to link with Xiaomi’s Mi Band smart fitness bracelet. That will let users smooth the process of making payments, bypassing the need for passwords.
The report claims that the Mi Band 2 will use the industry standard encryption methods in order to offer secure payments. Also it is said that the payment system will work on the current version of Alipay Wallet for Google’s Android operating system and the next version will be compatible with Apple’s iOS. Alibaba on the other hand is looking to partner with more manufacturers to bring contactless payment via Alipay to more wearables.
Alipay has opened mobile payment, alerts and voucher verification access to Huami, the manufacturer of Mi Band. The Mi Band had shipped over 1 million units as of early December last year, four months after going on sale in August last year, according to Xiaomi.