The newly launched Bhim app, which allows users to send and receive money into their bank accounts instantly, is among a few other wallets based on the payments interface the Indian government has put in place.

The app links your mobile number, or a virtual address, to various bank accounts and lets you transact with others, without having to login to your bank account every time you need to make a transaction. You can download the app here.

Here’s a quick review of the Bharat Interface for Money (Bhim) app.

1. At 1.92 MB, the app is quick to download. But finding it on the Play store is a bit of a challenge since searching for BHIM app throws up all kinds of results.

2. The Bhim app gives you a choice to select between English and Hindi. Unfortunately, that’s not going to be enough to localise the app effectively. India has a lot many more languages.

3. It takes into account that in India, most people use dual SIM phones. There’s an option to select which SIM you want to link to your account.

4. Nearly 30 banks are on the app. So that covers a large section of the banked population.

5. The app has been quite slow, perhaps because of the large volume of traffic it has had to handle. It will get better, hopefully.

6. Apple users are going to have to wait. It isn’t on iOS yet.

Bhim app belongs to the National Payments Corporation of India, an umbrella body setup by major banks and the government to facilitate digital payments. Here are some frequently asked questions about Bhim app and answers.

There are other apps like Flipkart’s PhonePe and State Bank of India’s SBI Pay app, that allow you to transact in a similar fashion by using the unified payments interface setup by the government. Watch Pramod Varma, one of the architects of UPI, explain how it works.

Correction: SBI’s app built on Unified Payments Interface is called SBI Pay and not Buddy.

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