Imagine not needing a wallet or a phone to make a purchase. Imagine that all you need is your smile. Sounds unrealistic, strange, scary… Probably all of it. But also pretty cool!
Nowadays, we’re used to mobile banking, contactless payment and online shopping. But Sberbank (Russia’s largest bank) has gone further and now you can pay with just your smile. The system is called “Smile to Pay” and it uses facial recognition to process payments where a person smiling confirms the payment. It’s fast and very convenient for the customers (РБК, 2025).
Launched in 2023 as a response to Apple Pay and Google Pay leaving the Russian market, this technology connects a unique ID to a customer’s biometrics data. This ID is also linked to the customer’s bank account (Bikker, 2025). At first it was only Sberbank’s customers who could use Smile to Pay but now it’s available to all banks across Russia. Like many technologies, it first rolled out in the major Russian cities such as Moscow, Saint Petersburg, Yekaterinburg and Novosibirsk. Now, in 2025, it has expanded to most regions of Russia (GFCN, 2025). It has gained popularity among customers because of its convenience but also because Sberbank introduced loyalty programs like receiving cashback. The benefits for the business include faster processing time, less queues and less customers leaving without purchases due to a forgotten phone or a wallet (РБК, 2025).
Some IT experts, however, do not recommend using this technology because this biometrics data is easier to fake with just a photo and some gen AI. The data is less secure than finger prints or retina scans (Бояршина, 2023). Additionally, it’s hard to know how much we can trust the Russian government to have biometrics of its citizens. Even if the bank states that the data is stored securely and cannot be stolen, the government still has access to it. In a country where basically everything is controlled, it’s easy to imagine that your smile will be more than just a payment method but also a tool for surveillance.
Personally I’m not comfortable using it right now because I don’t want to give the Russian government more ways to track where and when I go. However, this technology is slowly being adopted in other countries too, for example, China and the US are both adopting Smile to Pay into their services (Bikker, 2025 & Morgan, 2024). Does that mean that it is the future and inevitably it’s going to become a standard payment method across the world? I don’t know…
In the end, Smile to Pay goes beyond a simple innovation. It offers a vision of the future where payments are easy and high-tech. But it’s also a reminder that even exciting new technologies can have a dark side.
SOURCES:
Bikker, G. (2025). Sberbank ‘Smile-to-Pay’ service goes viral as biometric payment installations pass one million milestone. TechBullion. https://techbullion.com/sberbank-smile-to-pay-service-goes-viral-as-biometric-payment-installations-pass-one-million-milestone/?utm_source=chatgpt.com
Global Fact-Checking Network (GFCN). (2025, May 5). Smile-to-pay service in Russia — Fake or Real? Global Fact-Сhecking Network. https://globalfactchecking.com/smile-to-pay-service-in-russia-fake-or-real/
Morgan, J. (2024). Pay by Smile: In-Store biometric payments in the U.S. | J.P. Morgan. https://www.jpmorgan.com/insights/payments/payment-trends/in-store-biometric-payments
Бояршина, А. (2023). Хотите расплачиваться на кассе улыбкой? IT-эксперт не советует так делать. Secret Firmy. https://secretmag.ru/zhizn/khotite-rasplachivatsya-na-kasse-ulybkoi-it-ekspert-ne-sovetuet-tak-delat-07-08-2023.htm
Что такое «Оплата улыбкой»: как работает и как ее подключить. (n.d.). РБК Инвестиции. https://www.rbc.ru/quote/news/article/67bb37ff9a79475c2cd1acc8
