Clients beyond Smartphones (macOS and Windows desktop, iOS iPad and Android tablets)

[zainjetha]

Once Monzo current account is launched, and iPhone/Android apps are working well, do you see Monzo slowly beginning to develop clients beyond the mobile device?

It would be great to see a client for the iPad, and eventually for the web and perhaps even for macOS desktop.

@tom has mentioned in his most recent interview that with the Marketplace, users should be able to access multiple financial services, all from a single app (Transferwise, Zopa, etc as examples). My concern is that with with monzo wanting to be the centre of your financial life and the current account sitting at the hub, when all these additional integrations are possible, the UI gets bloated, and crammed with menus, sub-menus etc, until it gets to a point where it takes multiple taps to accomplish a small task.

I don’t mind if I have to use all of my fintech services each with their own app (Transferwise, Nutmeg, Pensionbee) if it means not cramming/congesting up the Monzo app, and leaving it to do one function (current accounts exceptionally well).

On the other hand, if all of my financial services will truly be able to be managed in one place, the smartphone will be a great place, but I wouldn’t mind doing more complex tasks on an iPad/desktop. The concept here is really simple, as the device gets larger, the UI gets less cluttered, and users can undertake more complex functions with the integrated partners like Zopa etc.

Also, certain tasks are just better done on a desktop app, like downloading of web statements, searching through transactions, etc. It would be great to see Monzo be a truly cross-platform banking app in the future.

[alexs (Alex Sherwood)]

@zainjetha

great to see a client for the iPad, and eventually for the web

There is definitely a web interface on the way

What would happen if I lost my card (down the line when you are a bank)?

Here’s some good news on this, Monzo is recruiting for a web based design position & one of that person’s tasks will be to develop a web portal for our users, so that they can undertake basic interactions with their Monzo account even when they can’t access the app (e.g. freezing their card, contacting our customer support team) A Designer Who Codes job post. Old link to job post no longer works

& you can get a sense of what a desktop app might look like by checking out Quids. But since Monzo are mobile first, I’m not expecting too much development in this area. So…

@zainjetha

users should be able to access multiple financial services, all from a single app (Transferwise, Zopa, etc as examples). My concern is that with with monzo wanting to be the centre of your financial life and the current account sitting at the hub, when all these additional integrations are possible, the UI gets bloated, and crammed with menus, sub-menus etc,

although that is how the interaction has been described, I’m actually expecting something a little bit different. I assume that the marketplace (price comparison / app store) will be built into Monzo’s app. But my guess is that the app will become a hub for interaction with the other provider’s apps & data, a bit like Slack. A really simple example of this would be retrieving your Uber receipt from their API so that you can view it from your transaction record, an integration that was built here & discussed by Tom (along with Monzo’s approach to handling other integrations) here.

I can’t see them building a UI that can handle lot’s of different provider’s products because that would seriously restrict the speed of implementation for new partners & the number of provider’s whose products they could offer. Since they will be relying on referral fees for helping sell those provider’s products, that would be a bit of a disaster!

[zainjetha]

Well, I’m certainly intrigued.

I’m hoping that an iPad app might emerge perhaps a year or so down the line, once current accounts are well under way, as technically an iPad is still mobile-first, but this isn’t critical.

I’m intrigued as to marketplace/integrations. Perhaps it will be a combination of the two approaches. I’m a big fan of keeping things simple. Tom definitely said a single interface to manage all, so who knows. It is for all practical purposes impossible to squeeze uber into monzo, and I wouldn’t want do this - but Transferwise otherwise.

I’m a fan of people of bespoke apps which all do things well, but what would be amazing to see is being able to see a snapshot of everything else like a pane which can show balances from Nutmeg, PensionBee, MoneyBox and and undertake very basic interactions and redirect you to bespoke the app for more complex tasks.

[zainjetha]

@Naji are you by any chance in a position to clarify how integrations/the marketplace will work, in relation to what has been said above?