The appetite for fintech apps is steadily growing. Over the past decade, banking applications have ceased to be an exclusive domain of the young and the tech-savvy and have earned their place in every generation’s financial management routine. Now it’s safe to say that in many respects fintech mobile apps have taken over many activities formerly performed only by tellers, and such apps will only keep gaining more traction.

Among the factors driving the expansion of fintech apps, there is one that enterprise mobile application development experts differentiate more than others: user convenience. Financial apps are all-in-one, 24/7, engaging alternatives to traditional banking services. Banks that have adopted this technology early as a way to offer high-quality services and kindle customer engagement now get to ride the wave of unfaltering customer loyalty.

So, what do top-of-the-line banks offer with their apps? What are the features that appeal to users and make a huge difference in terms of customer satisfaction? And, more importantly, what lessons and know-hows can you pick up from them to enhance a mobile app of your own?

Focus on User-friendliness

Finances are certainly not everyone’s favorite thing—a fair share of people find it confusing, boring, or overly complex. Therefore, a monumental task falls on the shoulders of fintech app designers: to convince users with interfaces, dashboards, menus, and colors that banking is simple and fun and does not require in-depth knowledge to nail it. And, judging by the upturn in the numbers of fintech customers, more and more people are leaving their prejudices behind.

Simplicity and understanding of customers’ needs are at the core of fintech apps. The interfaces are clear and uncluttered, displaying exactly what the user expects to see. To convey information more vividly, leading fintech apps integrate functional animations: the elements explaining the process or marking an action complete.

Another pronounced usability trend in fintech apps is segmentation. Each financial operation or metric gets a single dedicated tab with an unambiguous name. Such tabs are easy to access from the main menu, so that even a first-time visitor can navigate them intuitively.

Overall, fintech apps follow the UX principle once put into words by Steve Jobs: “Design is not just what it looks like and feels like. Design is how it works.” A financial mobile application exists to solve problems and do it conveniently, with minimal efforts demanded from the user. Behind every successful fintech app, there is an extensive analysis of the target audience’s behavior and careful mapping of the customer journey.

Blockchain-driven Security

According to the 2019 Global Fintech Report by PwC, 40% of financial institutions believe blockchain will be driving change in the industry in the next two years. So, what is the value that fintech recognizes in blockchain?

Security is a major pain point of financial technologies, and blockchain may be the long-awaited solution that will render fintech apps unbreachable. Due to its distributed architecture and transparency, the blockchain-based systems can deter targeted attacks or mitigate the effects of a breach. With that in mind, the most credible fields of blockchain application in fintech is customer identity validation and payment processing security.

Fintech apps tend to become targets of financial fraud, but blockchain can put an end to it. Blockchain, with its shared transactional records, can be fully anti-fraud and tamper-proof.

When a financial record is created, any action performed on it—editing, copying, deleting, etc.—will be automatically put on the blockchain, making it impossible to conceal a fraudulent operation. This makes blockchain especially effective for curbing fraud schemes that involve altering financial statements, for example, overstating losses and understating assets.

Value-adding Features

Fintech apps users appreciate the convenience of having a gateway to any financial operation on their smartphones, but what they also undeniably relish is that tracking their personal finances has become easy.

Now, all fintech apps allow customers to view their financial activities and spending history. A customer usually has an option to visualize this information as graphs and charts to get a better understanding of their spending habits and patterns. As a result, 62% of the US customers name a greater awareness of their financial situation as a mobile banking benefit.

Fintech applications also assist in improving spending habits and making good financial choices. Some of the more innovative apps went beyond that and implemented AI for evaluating users’ financial health, advising on how to improve it or warning against reckless actions.

For instance, Status Money gives users spending recommendations and rewards for following them, while another fintech app, Emma, advises an optimal sum of money one can put aside at the end of each month.

Chatbots and Voice Assistants

Recent advances in machine learning and natural language processing laid the groundwork for the mainstream adoption of chatbots. However, while in most industries customer support remains their only function, a fintech conversational bot serves diverse purposes and is steadily gaining traits of a full-on virtual assistant.

A fintech app user can turn to the conversational interface for different reasons: to check the account balance, to pay bills, to review the transaction history, to solve an issue, and so on. A 24/7 chatbot swiftly comes up with the answer or performs the needed action, saving customers’ time and energy and the banks’ money spent on traditional support channels. More sophisticated fintech bots, like Erica by the Bank of America, send reminders about bill payments, warn about a low remaining balance, and offer proactive financial guidance. 

Also, a fair share of fintech bots is now voice-enabled, in line with the popularity of Siri and Alexa and the emerging voice payments. This payment technology is gaining momentum due to its simplicity, and by 2022 up to 31% of US adults will be paying with their voice. The voice technology also makes a big difference to visually impaired clients, allowing them to use digital banking unhindered.

Gamification as an Engagement Booster

Younger generations use fintech apps several times a week, while the older ones only a few times a month. One tendency is universal across generations, though: users log in to make a transaction or receive information and leave as soon as their goal is attained. So, to prolong app interaction time and boost customer engagement, some fintech developers opt for such unconventional in-app elements as games.

Fintech app games can serve to educate end users while entertaining them. Some app developers use this approach to raise the audience’s awareness of new or existing services, while others aim to raise general financial literacy levels. As a result, players learn to make sound financial choices and diversify the scope of banking instruments they rely on.

Contest is another mainstream format of fintech app games. In a nutshell, contests encourage certain behavior or actions: reaching money-saving goals, not using credit overdrafts, and so on. If successful, a customer receives a reward, which is either tangible (event tickets, gadgets) or intangible (discounts, subscriptions, lower interest rates).

Fintech Is One Big Case Study

Fintech is ramping up, and its impressive growth is partially driven by mobile apps. Playing catch-up with traditional banking, fintech has made a bold move and adopted the latest innovations to drive personalization, user engagement, and security. As a result, the niche is steadily winning bank customers over while becoming a hub of transformative solutions.

Therefore, even if your future product has nothing to do with finances, it’s worth taking a close look at fintech mobile applications and explore the features that drive their success. After all, if you want to learn, then learn from the best.