Smartphones are capable of a great degree of multitasking in their current generation. But the current of smartphone users unfortunately has even less patience for switching between apps to get things done. If you are a user who agrees that we shouldn't have to switch between apps to do things like transfer money or a mobile recharge, you're in luck if you have an ICICI Bank account.
ICICI unveiled iMobile SmartKeys, an app that works in the same space where your smartphone keyboard shows up and provides you a shortcut window into some banking and payment transactions, without having to switch out of your current app to open the actual iMobile ICICI app on your smartphone.
This feature is currently only available on iOS. iPhone users will have to update their app to get the keyboard. Post the update, they have to add the keyboard from Phone Settings>General>Keyboard>Keyboards>Add New Keyboard>Third party keyboard>iMobile. The user will also have to enable full access for the keyboard from the keyboard options.
Now, in any application where the regular keyboard is being used, the user can long-press the globe icon on the keyboard and select 'iMobile Smartkeys’ from the list. This will open an authentication screen within the keyboard area, where the user will have to enter their login PIN or Touch ID, depending on their iMobile login.
Once logged in, there are mainly two tabs to know about. The 'Fund transfer using Payees’ is to directly send money to a registered payee with the added option of pasting a message on the chat window, which can be sent to notify them. The 'Favorites’ tab contains the transactions that the user may have marked as favorite on the iMobile app, which can even include Mobile recharges and utility bill payments.
This feature was developed by a participating group in 'ICICI Appathon’, a virtual mobile app development competition. And ICICI has always been one of the banks using technology to make banking easier for their customers. Their app was the first mobile banking app in India and even their recent launch of Pockets, India's first digital bank, has been really successful. The Android version of this feature is expected to arrive to their Android app quite soon, so watch this space for that update.