PayPal’s latest update to its application includes a new home screen designed to make it faster and easier for users to access their most important account information and take popular actions, such as send payments.

As more consumers rely on their phones to manage their finances, PayPal – which sees one out of four transactions on mobile – is among those looking to bring added conveniences and value to mobile users via new features and functionality. PayPal also wants to stay at the forefront of mobile innovation now that it is a standalone company.

“PayPal is especially excited about the simplified features that make it easier for our users to move and manage their money,” said Joanna Lambert, vice president of global consumer product and engineering at PayPal.

“The new home screen lets you quickly access all your transaction details, allows you to pay pending requests or send payments to recent contacts,” she said. “We’ve also improved the send and request money feature, which now gives a more personal experience by displaying people you send money to the most and request money from.”

Personalized pages
PayPal has refreshed the design of its mobile app, streamlining the experience along the way, with customer feedback driving much of the new look.

Users can now personalize the pages for sending and requesting money with the people that they exchange money with most, including their phone contacts.

Sending and requesting money is one of the most popular features in the app. Over the last two years, PayPal has seen more than 100 percent growth in the number of peer-to-peer transactions happening in the app.

On the new home screen, users can access all of their transaction details, pay pending requests and send requests to recent contacts.

There is also a brand-new request money flow enabling others to pay users with just one click.

More account information is also now available, including three years of history, how payments were funded and the money that was sent.

Customer feedback
Based on feedback from a beta test with customers, PayPal also fine-tuned Android fingerprint authentication for more devices, separated account activity by pending and completed transactions and enabled quick access to the friends users send money to most often.

The app also makes it easier to use popular in-store functionality, such as order ahead through partners such as Yelp Eat24.

The new app supports PayPal’s global messaging by using an iterative platform so it is easier to customize and localize the app for the 145 markets where it is live.

New research from PayPal shows that 20 percent of millennials have made cross-border purchases on their smartphones in the past year, 41 percent have bought from a Web site that was not in their own language and 47 percent have purchased in foreign currency.

“With 179 million active users around the world, having a strong global experience is at the core of what PayPal does,” Ms. Lambert said. “The app is built on a new iterative platform, which allows us more customization than ever before for the 145 markets where the app is live.

“Also, advances in technology, and the ubiquity of mobile, help us act on our vision to enable a faster, simpler and more inclusive way for people around the world to manage and move money – and a strong global experience is part of this,” she said.