A relevant mobile banking app with all the necessary features of today is what helps a financial institution stay competitive and doesn’t stop growing. Traditional banking communications methods have served their purpose years ago but because of their limitations in functionality and user experience, they will never overpass a mobile banking app.
One of the many evolutions in mobile banking is the voice payments feature, thanks to which an authentication process during the payment stage is frictionless, yet safe. Voice as a method or tool of communication has been present in mobile banking for quite some time, and now it has changed the way we pay online.
If you always wanted to find out what makes voice control and voice payment features possible – read on because we’re going to do just that!
How Do Voice Features Work in Banking Apps?
Voice features in banking apps let users handle tasks with voice commands instead of typing. Using technologies like natural language processing (NLP) and artificial intelligence (AI), the app listens to your command, turns it into text, and figures out what you’re asking.
For example, you can check your balance, transfer money, or pay bills with your voice. Once the app understands the request, it may verify your identity using biometrics (voice recognition or face ID) to make sure the request is legit, and completes the task.
These features must come with an extra layer of security measures to protect your information and your funds while making banking more accessible for people with disabilities. The technology is yet to become more accurate and easier to use, though it already offers a faster way to manage finances.
App-Based Banking Is What We All Need
App-based banking outperforms the traditional methods of interaction in every aspect you can think of.
The key element that an app has is an intuitive graphical user interface or GUI. GUI makes the interaction with the bank more engaging and way more user-friendly. Not only that, it also gives space for other numerous features to appear.
Thanks to GUI, a banking app can logically combine:
- Real-time transactions and all kinds of filters;
- Detailed account management with statistics;
- Personalized and adjustable notifications;
- Top-notch security with biometric authentication and voice payment feature.
That’s why financial app development steps are so important these days. Mobile banking app development is the main point of focus when financial institutions are having the goal of enhancing their customer service.
Your Voice Matters
Voice-activated technology gives you a new level of convenience and security across all industries, not just banking.
In banking specifically, users can now conduct transactions through voice commands. This is called voice payment, and it has become increasingly popular because, unlike fingerprints, which can be spoofed, voice authentication is safer due to its unique characteristics and the difficulty of replication.
Are Voice Assistants Really That Important?
Absolutely. Users recognize voice-activated services as the feature that makes their interaction with the app easier. Be it Alexa, Google Assistant, or Siri, voice assistants are soon likely to become the primary method of how people access the internet and interact with it. Therefore, integrating your banking app with them and developing voice commands that trigger specific banking actions is a must-have task on your list.
Integrating voice payment features allows your users to interact with the app hands-free, which is convenient in a multitude of situations. Some people will still prefer to type in everything manually considering it a safer process.
The studies show that younger generations tend to perform voice searches more and more. Considering this is the future target audience of your bank or financial institution, adopting a future-proof approach and adapting your app’s user experience to what your audience is used to is a wise thing to do.
Here are some common banking actions you can do in banking apps today:
- Check the balance,
- Transfer funds to a saved template,
- Pay bills or confirm transactions.
How Does It Change the Development Process?
Voice payment feature integration adds complexity to the development process and increases its cost as it requires your team to make various technologies, APIs, and services work together. Each of these steps is costly, but that’s what it takes for your app to have a seamless and efficient voice payment experience for your users.
To make the price tag look more appealing, you can team up with a company providing fintech software development services. They’ve got the advanced tools and experience, both of which reduce development time and, therefore, costs.
Make sure that you team up with a company that has experience in voice recognition technologies and cybersecurity. Banking involves processing personal information every second, which is a potential target for hackers. A cybersecurity-focused partner ensures that the voice data, authentication systems, and communication channels are protected against breaches, identity theft, and fraud.
Cybersecurity experts must help you to implement encryption, multi-factor authentication, and continuous monitoring. This collaboration can also ensure compliance with data privacy regulations, further protecting your institution and your customers from potential legal issues.
The implementation of the feature itself is usually done in the latter stages of development, in the post-core functionality integration. The task that’s pretty much identical in all industries is the incorporation of APIs from voice assistant platforms like Alexia, Google Assistant, and Siri. Your development team must ensure these APIs interact with the app’s existing infrastructure smoothly. Only that way, voice commands for transactions are to operate conveniently and securely.
What Other Technologies Are Necessary to Make Voice Payment Possible?
A digital wallet is what makes it possible for you to give a voice command to pay for the bill you just received.
Digital wallets store users’ payment information, be it a password or other sensitive data, so that they can conduct electronic transactions quickly and securely later. These software-based systems provide encrypted storage and the transfer of payment credentials. Integrating voice payment features with digital wallets means developing secure APIs that allow voice commands to access and authorize transactions by using payment information that’s being stored.
Natural Language Processing, or NLP, is essential. Thanks to it, your app will understand and process voice commands accurately. Developing NLP models supposes you to train them on vast datasets to recognize and interpret various accents, dialects, and languages.
Here’s how this process usually looks:
- The data is cleaned and organized to ensure high-quality inputs for model training;
- Relevant features are identified and extracted from the voice data;
- Machine learning algorithms train the NLP models;
- The models are then regularly updated with new data to adapt to evolving language use.
While it may sound complicated, AI-related technologies have advanced a lot during the past two years. So many banks and fintech companies now have access to NLP through cloud-based platforms and APIs provided by Google, Microsoft, and Amazon. With the help of their infrastructure, implementing voice recognition features is much easier and doesn’t require developing everything from scratch.
Blockchain is another technology that can add another layer of security to your app and voice recognition feature. Whatever blockchain you choose for your app (Ethereum, Cardano, Polkadot or even custom-made one), it is supposed to record transactions on a decentralized ledger, making it harder for fraudsters to manipulate or alter transaction records.
Other cybersecurity techniques such as multi-factor authentication, data privacy compliance technologies, end-to-end encryption, and voice biometrics.
What Was Before Mobile Banking Apps?
Starting with the oldest mobile banking communication method – SMS banking.
Back in the day, SMS banking gave users an incredible opportunity – to perform basic banking functions by sending commands to a bank’s shortcode. Crazy! Each bank used the standard GSM network to make it all work. But perhaps “all” is a bit of an exaggerated word, because most banks allowed only things like:
- Balance inquiries;
- Mini statements;
- Fund transfers.
Using text-based commands to communicate with a bank would be cumbersome for most users of today.
SMS banking is not the only fundamental or traditional banking communication method out there, though. There’s also USSD banking, but don’t get too excited. It operates on that same GPT network with the key difference being that USSD banking allows for real-time, session-based communication. It’s more interactive than SMS banking, for sure. You dial a specific code and access a menu for various banking services. More versatile? Yes, but the lack of an intuitive and user-friendly interface and another dozen useful features make USSD banking as obsolete as SMS banking.
Conclusion
Developing a banking app with voice payment features is surely not the cheapest task to complete.
The cost of integrating voice payment features into a banking app can vary significantly depending on the complexity of the system, the technologies used, and the specific security measures required. But on average, such a project can cost from $50,000 to $150,000 for basic features. However, for more advanced solutions that include AI-driven personalization, fraud detection, and interaction with smart devices, costs can escalate to between $150,000 and $300,000 or more.
Ongoing updates and maintenance also add to the cost, especially as the system evolves to improve accuracy and security.
But look at it in a way that high costs are offset by the significant benefits. With the user demand going more and more towards the increased role of voice in the interaction with the IoT, integrating voice payment and control features looks like a future-proof solution for your business.
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