PayPal's Android app has been sorely in need of an update for some time, and now it's getting one. The new v6.0 update is officially out tomorrow, but the update seems to have started appearing already. We've got it on APK Mirror if you want to check it out, and it's a big departure.
Here's the changelog for the new app, provided by PayPal support. The final changelog might end up being a little different.
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The entire app has a new design and is built upon faster, more reliable services. This will make the current features faster and more efficient for our customers. In addition, the new app now includes:
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A more detailed activity view with a number of quick actions. These actions will allow customers to accept/deny payments, pay a pending request, send another payment, or view history with a particular merchant.
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A home page that allows customers to quickly navigate to some top tasks and discover features they didn’t know about.
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The ability to request money from friends and family
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The ability to view and update your personal information
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The option to sign up for a new PayPal account
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Being able to send money to recent or frequent contacts quickly.
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Marshmallow fingerprint login (allegedly)
The UI is a radical departure, and not entirely "Android" in appearance. The home page has your account info up top, then various quick actions below that. There are some material animations and touch effects, but I feel a little lost without a navigation menu. It feels a bit like a UI that was designed to work on both iOS and Android. It's supposed to support fingerprint sensors on Marshmallow, but I have not seen that in the updated app.
You might also notice that I took a photo of my phone above. That's because the app now blocks screenshots at the system level.You can get the new version from APK Mirror or wait for it to hit your device the old-fashioned way. There are a few pics of the old UI below.
UPDATE: 2016/02/18 8:46am PST BY
PayPal has updated its blog with the official announcement. See below for all the details. There's also a video of the app in action.
These days commerce takes place online, in apps and in store, and mobile devices are at the center of it. One out of four transactions on PayPal is on mobile, and Forrester Research predicts mobile commerce will represent more than one third of online transactions in 2016.
Just a few weeks after the launch of our ‘New Money’ global marketing campaign, the redesigned PayPal app embodies our vision for the future of money. We redesigned the app to make it simpler and more personal for you to move and manage your money no matter where you are. It puts the things you want to do most with the app at the forefront and gets rid of the clutter.
In fact, customer feedback drove much of the redesign. In our new app you will find:
A Better Global Experience. We’ve built the app using an iterative platform so it’s easier to customize and localize the PayPal app for the 145 markets where the app is live. This means you get a better experience no matter where you are or what language you speak.
Simplified Features. We’ve simplified our features and modernized our app to make it easier for you to move and manage your money.
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Send & Request Money: You’ve shown us sending and requesting money from your friends and family is one of the most popular features in the app. In fact, over the last two years, we have seen over 100% growth in the number of peer-to-peer transactions happening in the app. There’s a new personalized hub that lets you add people directly from your contact book, allowing for an easy way to send and request money from friends.
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New Home Screen: You can find all your transaction details, pay your pending requests, or send payments to your recent contacts.
Customers First. Many of the features we’ve included in our redesigned app include features that were requested by you! Our product and design teams spent a lot of time listening to our customers and speaking with some of our 8,000 customer service team members to find out how we could improve our app. We even conducted a customer beta and received thousands of pieces of feedback during the testing, which we added into the app, like:
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Fine-tuning Android fingerprint authentication for more devices
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Separating account activity by pending and completed transactions
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Having quick access to the friends you send money to most often
Mobile In-store. We have also made it easier for you to use the in-store functionality that you really want, like order ahead through partners like Yelp Eat24 and payment code. We believe the key is offering you choice, flexibility, convenience and security. We’ll have more in-store features coming soon.
Our app redesign is just one example of what PayPal is doing to help empower you to move and manage money securely, efficiently and affordably.
Thanks: Ender