New Delhi, Nov 2 (KNN) UPI transactions through voice command will be allowed from April 2024, said the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) in a circular and has asked banks, payment service providers and other stakeholders to enable the ‘Hello! UPI’ feature in their apps by March 31.

“To improve the access and experience on digital platforms which support payments, NPCI has introduced the ‘Hello! UPI’ as a feature to drive access and experience of UPI, assisted with voice,” said the NPCI in the guidelines sent to banks and payment service providers on October 27.

“The UPI features such as user onboarding, balance inquiry, financial transaction, complaint resolution, etc will be enabled using voice commands by the user,” it added.

These guidelines are for the apps which are already live, a source told FE. Reserve Bank of India (RBI) governor Shaktikanta Das in September announced the launch of several new products, including ‘Hello! UPI’, by the NPCI during the Global Fintech Festival.

With the ‘Hello! UPI’ feature, a user will be able to complete the transaction by simply giving a voice command. For example, if a user wants to send money, he can open the UPI app and say Hello (name of the app) and make the payment to a person (name saved in contact list).

Similarly, if a user wants to check the account balance, he will be able to do so by giving the voice command. Currently, a user has to manually type the command to perform a transaction.

Apart from apps, the user will also be able to use this feature through voice calls. Individuals will be required to call a number and give her instructions to complete the transaction.

This service will initially be rolled out in the English and Hindi languages, but gradually users will be allowed to use this voice command in 11 regional languages.

(KNN Bureau)