HDFC Bank, the Indian private sector bank, has launched a mobile banking application for Google’s Android smartphone OS in Hindi language, reports IBNLive. HDFC Bank customers using an Android smartphone can conduct over 30 kinds of banking transactions including balance enquiry, checking transaction history, fund transfer and bill payments among others. Android users can download the app free of charge from Google Play.
HDFC bank is among the first ones to launch a mobile app with support for Hindi language. Last year , HDFC had also launched an English-language mobile banking app, which according to the Bank, attracted over 12 lakh users. With the launch of support for Hindi language, the company hopes that the user base will touch 16 lakh. Apart from mobile banking solution for smartphones, HDFC also offers SMS based and browser based banking solutions. HDFC also provides mobile banking solutions in English language for Smartphones based on Nokia’s Symbian OS, Android, Apple’s iOS, and BlackBerry.
Our Take (by Anupam)
We tried using the app on a Galaxy Nexus, and were able to access mobile banking options for our Bank account and Credit card , in addition to bill payments. The app offers controls for navigating through the bank account, fund transfer, credit card, bill payments, demat and debit card. The native Android menu button also does not serve any purpose.
While the Android back button can be used for going backwards within the app, the app also offers an additional back button and log-out button. The app does not save login details and users need to login each time they invoke the app.
We felt that some users might face difficulty in understanding certain Hindi words/terms used in the app (the vocabulary used in the app is not used in day to day spoken Hindi) , and perhaps HDFC could have a separate interface with a mix of Hindi and English terms (in Devanagri script).
Other developments: Movida, the mobile payments joint venture backed by Visa and UK based mobile payments solutions provider, Monitise, had signed an agreement with HDFC Bank, to introduce a mobile payments service. The service allows HDFC Bank customers to pay bills, top up prepaid airtime and buy tickets from their mobile phone and will be available across all mobile networks using any Visa or non-Visa branded payment account.
Anupam Saxena also contributed to this post
