03Jul 2019

Peer-to-Peer Payment Apps: A Brief Overview

The growing influence of the web has reached to an extent where we can roam around cashless. No, I am not talking about going cashless with your ATM card in the wallet, which would take care of the needs. But, this is one of the scenarios where you can go cashless and cardless at the same time. Just with a swipe on your touch screen you can make payments or transfer funds or initiate a payment to the merchant or to anyone as you wish.

Yes, it is happening. Moreover, there are people who are worried about the safety and security of their payments, which prevents them from using this payment mechanism, where you can go cashless and cardless without any further worries of carrying money with you all the time.

One of the examples of this payment wallet could be best illustrated by the Paytm wallet that is one of the coolest payment gate ways. Let us think about a situation where you are planning to hire a UBER cab for your next journey. It is late in the night and you need to get home from the office. You are not carrying cash with you and it is a little bit difficult to find ATM’s nearby. But, you need to get home and you are going to hire an UBER. What do you do?

Your UBER app shows the payment options as: “CASH” and “Paytm.” Which one do you select? As we have already discussed you are in short of cash. Now the only option you are left with is the Paytm. You check on the Paytm option and within minutes your UBER is here. You enjoy one of the coolest rides home and your Paytm takes care of your payment. Here, there are quite a few advantages of not having to carry cash around.

You have been travelling alone at night with a stranger. We cannot prevent disasters such as theft which happens at the most unexpected time. But, with cashless and cardless payments we are ensuring that there is more security to our lives and assets than ever and also, we are saving ourselves the effort of always keeping money with us.

Payment app

The payment happens instantly as you are dropped at your destination. You can go home and have a sound sleep. Also, think about your situation where you went out for a team dinner. And, all of you planned to split the bill amongst the team. Now you have the easiest way of payment with you. You can transfer it via the payment wallet and burp merrily after a delicious dinner at one of your favorite restaurants. To make this happen,  people always check out methods that show how to develop e-wallet. 

So, what exactly is this peer-to-peer payment app?

Let me not give you any complicated definitions, if you haven’t heard of it before, I wish to make it easier for you. This system acts or takes up the responsibility of a messenger or carrier, which would provide you with a bridge to transfer or initiate payments from your bank account to another individual or merchant’s account or card via a software app. Ain’t it easy?

These days we can observe that a number of youngsters are in awe of these apps that make it easier for them to go around without the typical difficulty of carrying cash or card with them every time they wish to make a purchase or transfer back the money someone had to lend them. But, there are still those who are worried about the safety, which you can take a chill pill because it is safe and secure.

A number of companies are popping up these days with peer-to-peer apps that could make the lives of people easier.

Here, are some of the commonly preferred peer-to-peer apps that you can witness in the market:

There are two categories of this:

1. Firstly, there is one category which belongs to mobile apps or payment app services introduced by giant companies such as Google. These include the Paypal.me from PayPal, SquareCash from Square and Google Wallet from Google.

2. Then, the second category comprises of a company that could be providing this a separate service in partnership with banks or social media network payment integration such as ClearXchange, Circle and PopMoney.

The second category is something that is flourishing across, with a number of startups and others coming into the scenario with plans of introducing their peer-to-peer payment apps that can help people go cashless and cardless. Some of them start it off but later on join hands with the big hands and go ahead with them in the race. The collaboration of Braintree and PayPal is not something that we are not familiar with. If you still have plans to develop a peer-to-peer app and unsure about the future of your app, don’t worry, a lot is happening and you will always have a chance of getting your app acquired by some big name and get it to a place you never ever dreamt of.

Peer-to-peer apps in the making

Do you have plans to develop a peer-to-peer app?

Then, here is a glimpse into how you can go ahead and work on this:

As we have already discussed, any start-up or middle-tier or large-tier business can think of developing a peer-to-peer app for their business. You can develop a peer-to-peer app from scratch.

Or you can get a bank or a third-party payment service to integrate with your app.

The kind of methodology that you choose for your app decides the challenges and hurdles that you might have to put up with while developing your app. If you are planning for a desktop version of your app then, it would take a longer time consuming more resources and needing more people to put in their effort for the completion. But, then you can plan for a simpler and easier mode by utilizing the advantages of a third party integration system. This is where we should mention and appreciate the brilliance of apps such as the Chatbots that has taken us to a new level of convenience whether it is in terms of communication or in terms of utilization. Even giants like PayPal are utilizing the ease of Chatbots that provides the mechanism of addressing slacks with bots. These allow slack users to send money to anyone on their messenger contact list.

The-kind-of-methodology-that-you-choose

Now, the bigger picture:

Personal needs

The introduction of peer-to-peer payment apps was in fact introduced for taking care of personal needs rather than commercial purposes. This ensures that you are on a more secure payment front wherein you can utilize the system to transfer funds to your close people. Since these were not developed for commercial purposes; the security gateway needs more work to ensure that everything is happening safely.

Delay

The transactions are easier and quick within the blink of an eye. But, there have been concerns where people say that their transactions took up a long time to materialize, which needs to be addressed at the earliest. But, this provides the sender with an option to cancel the transaction if they do not want this to happen.

Connection

Some of the P2P apps need to be connected to your bank accounts or credit or debit card accounts which many users consider as unsafe. But, then, the one that people consider as safest is the one wherein they can park their money without connecting to any account or cards.

Here, are some of the services that you need to be keeping as part of your P2P app:

  1. You should be providing each of your users with a provision to create their own ID and profile. This will help your users to keep a track of each transaction that happens whenever money is sent or received.
  2. A chat box that provides users with the ease to communicate during a transaction.
  3. A provision to initiate invoices for any payment being initiated.
  4. The users must have the ease to make a transaction to anyone they wish. (including individuals or companies)
  5. A verification process should be included to ensure that the user is involved in the transaction.

So, which of the two methods would you choose for the app that you are developing or the app that you would prefer to initiate transactions as part of the revolution to go cashless and cardless?

These are some of the interesting things revolving around the P2P app that is yet to create a wave of revolution but slowly gaining prominence in our lives.

Would you like us to help you with developing an interesting app or software solution or customize a website that your people will love?
We can help.

Acodez IT Solutions is a web design and web development company in India offering all kinds of website design and development solutions to our clients in India and abroad. We consider ourselves experts at designing and experimenting with new services and apps that will help a business to grow and this is what we have been providing our clients with. We are also an SEO agency based in India offering all kinds of digital marketing solutions to take their business to the next level.

For further details, contact us today.

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Jamsheer K

Jamsheer K

Jamsheer K, is the Tech Lead at Acodez. With his rich and hands-on experience in various technologies, his writing normally comes from his research and experience in mobile & web application development niche.

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