Muscovites are using the My Moscow mobile app more frequently since the release of its updated version at the end of 2020. In particular, the popularity of the Services, My Payments and News & Events sections has increased, with the overall number of users up by more than 100,000.
The purpose of this improvement was to make the app even more convenient to use, to make it easier to find services, and to show residents the information they actually need. As a result, the number of users receiving at least one service via the app per month has increased by 5.5 percent. The number of views of news in the News and Events section grew by 2.6 times, while clicks on the My Payments section were up 1.3 times compared to the end of 2020.
Following the update, the various sections of the app are presented in separate blocks rather than on a single screen. Users can now go to the section they need and get only the information that is relevant to them at a specific time. This has helped make the application more user-friendly and, as a result, more efficient. For example, the average number of clicks in the News and Events section per month now exceeds 100,000, while in December it was only 40,000.
The My Payments section has also become more popular. Here, users can check if their bills have already been issued, which is automatically displayed in the section based on profile information, and can pay them with a couple of clicks. The section received over 130,000 visits in January, compared to about 100,000 monthly visits in late 2020.
For now, the new features are only available on iOS devices but they will soon be accessible to Android users as well. The home screen has also been redesigned to display widgets reminding the user of upcoming appointments with doctors, deadlines for submission of utility meter readings or vehicle impoundment messages. New widgets will be added to cover additional subjects in the future.
A voice assistant is being tested as part of the new version. As of today, it is only available to the 10 percent of subscribers who use iOS devices, but it will soon work for everyone. The new feature uses speech recognition. To get a service or information, the user only needs to ask a question aloud. The voice assistant can currently help with only nine issues: initiating the process of submitting water and electricity meter readings, showing unpaid bills for utilities or afterschool activities, information on children’s school grades, homework and class schedules, checking the balance of the user’s “Moskvenok” personal account and cancelling doctor’s appointments.
The app was consistently improved throughout 2020. For example, after the update, news in the relevant section is displayed as a single newsline, and to make it easy for residents to view only news that interest them, messages are filtered by subject matter, such as Culture, Social Sphere, Coronavirus, Transportation, and so on.
In the My Payments section it is now possible to set up a handy bill filter, and it also offers the opportunity to receive, view and send unified electronic payment documents (UPD) via messengers. By the way, UPDs are the most popular types of payment made by residents via the My Moscow app, followed by payment of bills for electricity and educational services, such as study and hobby groups, as well as top-ups to “Moskvenok” personal accounts.
The app keeps improving in the current year as well: the users are now able to pay for their MGTS landline phones with it, as well as read news about the city areas they are interested about. These areas will be determined based on the information that the user has specified about themselves in the app or on the mos.ru portal.
