The pots and small payments on one side, the bank account, card and savings on the other: the Lydia payment application is cut in two to try to make life easier for its users. Explanations.
“Lydia becomes Lydia again.” This is the enigmatic catchphrase that the French payment institution Lydia chose to announce the launch of its new mobile application. New ? It’s a little more complicated than that. It is rather a resurrection, that of Lydia of origins, when the service, more than ten years ago, only served two purposes: to reimburse friends who had advanced you money and to collect funds for the organization of an event. Before gradually being enriched with a long series of products and services – bank account, payment card, mini-credits etc. – and to become, even if it does not have official status, the equivalent of neobanks against Revolut for N26.
The new application, already available on the iPhone and Android stores, is thus limited to the two original uses, instant payment between individuals and online jackpots, which remain the majority among the 7 million users claimed by Lydia. It even revives the “iconic design, so familiar to users of the 2010s” of the early application, notes a press release. “We wanted to make the lives of our users simpler by offering two applications for distinct needs », summarizes Félix Lepoutre, vice president in charge of design at Lydia Solutions.
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New name for old app
And the Lydia application, as it had become recently? It does not disappear, obviously, but gains a new name: Lydia Comptes. It still offers the same everyday banking services: accounts with IBAN, physical and virtual bank cards, online payment, savings, investment, budget management, etc. And, always reimbursements between friends and online prize pools, which also remain on the menu of this application. “Future innovations are also in preparation to offer even more features to customers,” announces Lydia, without further details at this stage.
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