Venmo is getting its first big redesign, and it’s finally fixing this annoying feature

FastCompany: Venmo is getting its first full app overhaul since its inception in 2009, and it’s addressing some major UX issues that have made using the platform feel like the digital equivalent of flipping through a phone book. When Venmo was launched, it was a breath of fresh air in the finance space. It stood out for its social network-style approach to bill splitting and rent requests. Since then, though, Venmo’s aspirations have far outgrown its app interface. In the first quarter of 2026, PayPal (Venmo’s parent company) shared that Venmo’s total payment volume was up 14% year-over-year, marking its sixth consecutive quarter of double-digit growth.

According to Alexis Sowa, Venmo’s SVP and general manager, the app boasts over 100 million active accounts and 67 million monthly active users, with the average user visiting the app 10 times per month. That user behavior reflects a broader effort at Venmo; the brand has spent the last several years shifting from an occasional peer-to-peer money lending service to a more all-encompassing financial tool. In 2018, the company introduced a debit card feature that took it from an app to part of users’ wallets, which it has since expanded through partnerships with retailers like TikTok Shop, Uber, McDonald’s, Taco Bell, and more.

And, last fall, Venmo debuted its own rewards program to keep users engaging with the platform. Venmo is expanding its capabilities to become an everyday payment method. For users, though, many of those updates have gotten buried in the app’s archaic, scattered design. Finally, it’s getting a facelift that brings its UX out of the 2010s—and fixes one of its most perennially irritating features. [Image: Venmo] Venmo’s complicated design web Sowa and her team have spent the last year interviewing customers to learn how they use Venmo, which features they like the most, and where they’re experiencing the biggest sticking points on the app.

Their biggest learning, she says, was how many new Venmo features customers simply don’t know about—or can’t find. As Venmo began introducing more advanced features over time, Sowa says its engineering team needed places to put them that fit within the app’s existing information architecture. That meant new functionalities would get buried in unexpected places. To send a gift card, for example, users would have to first initiate a payment to the recipient in order to activate the gift card flow; or to split an expense with a group, they would have to navigate out of the payment tab and into their own profile settings.

Using Venmo was starting to feel less intuitive, and more like hunting for buried Easter eggs. Untangling this convoluted web of information required Sowa’s team to rework Venmo’s app from the ground up—updating each of its key sections to surface new features and make payments easier. [Image: Venmo] Username search is finally getting the boot Venmo’s app updates will roll out in phases over the coming months, starting with the Home page. The ethos of this page remains relatively unchanged; you can still browse through others’ transactions and interact with them.

Now, though, the feed has been pared down to be less information-dense and more proactive. The design team increased the feed’s font sizes to highlight relevant details, like who was paid and how much, and given users the option to browse through a portfolio of curated hero images to accompany their payments. They’ve also added buttons to make payment flows simpler. If a user grabs some seats on Ticketmaster, for example, Venmo will automatically surface a “Split” button to share the cost with friends; or if a user pays a friend, Venmo will automatically offer a “Pay again” feature to make the next payment quicker.

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The redesign of a widely used app like Venmo is significant for the digital payment industry and UX design, offering insights into user experience improvements that are relevant for brand strategy professionals.