News
Venmo’s biggest makeover in years comes at a very interesting time
Venmo is rolling out a significant redesign over the coming months that aims to make the app more useful, social, and easier to navigate. This is the peer-to-peer payments app’s biggest refresh since 2021.
The timing is notable. PayPal, which owns Venmo, is restructuring to spin Venmo off as a standalone business unit — a move widely seen as laying the groundwork for a potential sale. Stripe has reportedly expressed interest in buying PayPal outright. In that context, a splashy redesign looks less like a routine update and more like a window-dressing job ahead of a transaction.
The rollout will begin this week, followed by additional features over the next few months. By the time fall arrives, the entire redesign is expected to be available to all users.
One of the first changes users will notice starting this week is the revamped feed. Where it once showed a simple list of who paid whom — with GIFs, a heart button, and comments — the new feed will feature a wider variety of visuals and larger images, along with more ways to respond to payments, such as reactions and quick action buttons like “Pay Again” and “Say Thanks.” It’ll also be more personalized, surfacing tailored cashback offers from brands you shop from and product suggestions based on previous purchases.
Another addition is the ability for users to endorse their favorite local businesses directly through the app. A new “Give a Shoutout” button will be available under payments in the feed.
As Alexis Sowa, Venmo’s senior vice president and general manager, explained to TechCrunch, “One of the things that we hear a lot, especially from Gen Z and younger audiences, is a real desire to support and endorse local businesses or merchants that they like. With this feed redesign, we’re giving an opportunity for them to share what we call social proofing. In the future, you will be able to kind of endorse that business — give a thumbs up, almost to say, ‘I go to you.’”
Two new tabs, “Send” and “Money,” will also launch in the next few months. In the Send feed, your most frequent contacts now appear as a row of profile icons front and center, instead of requiring you to dig through past contacts or user names. The bill-splitting “Groups” feature” is now easier to access, too, letting users split expenses with up to 30 people. You can also send gifts to friends and schedule payments in the Send section.
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The Money tab, meanwhile, is where you can manage your expenses as well as access Teen Accounts and Crypto.
There will also be a new Rewards tab that pulls all limited time offers in one place. This is also where Venmo’s Stash program will live. Launched last November, this gives users up to 5% cash back when they shop with their favorite brands in the app, money that’s deposited directly to their Venmo Mastercard Debit Card.
Sowa said the redesign came out of a year of user research, and that one of the biggest findings was how many features people didn’t know existed. “One of the biggest insights is how many features and functionalities we have that [customers] just have no idea exist in the app,” she said.
The update reflects a broader trend in what younger users expect from payment apps — less utility tool, more social platform. For instance, apps like Verse and Daylight offer features that let users keep up with their friends’ spending behavior, and the European fintech app Revolut offers features like group bill splitting and in-app chat.
Venmo’s core audience increasingly wants to see and share financial activity the way they would on any other feed, and the app is clearly trying to meet that expectation before a potential new owner comes knocking.
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News
Ex-governors Nyame, Dariye jailed for looting multibillion-naira state funds named members of Tinubu’s 2027 campaign team
Two former governors, Jolly Nyame and Joshua Dariye, convicted for looting multi-billion naira public state funds are among those appointed as members of President Bola Tinubu’s 2027 presidential campaign council.
The appointment of Messrs Dariye and Nyame among others was announced in a statement by presidentialspokesman, Bayo Onanuga, on Saturday.
The duo will serve as contact mobilisation division for Mr Tinubu’s re-election campaign.
Mr Nyame, 70, a former governor of Taraba State between 1999 to 2007, was sentenced to 14 years in prison in 2018 over fraudulent diversion of N1.64 billion of state fund when he was in office.
Mr Nyame was however pardoned by the late President Muhammadu Buhari, in 2022, after serving four years of his jail sentence.
Also in 2021, a former governor of Plateau State, Dariye, was sentenced to 10 years in prison for looting about N2 billion state fund. He also got a presidential pardon in 2022 during the regime of the late Mr Buhari.
Mr Onanuga quoted Mr Tinubu, in the statement as charging the appointees to put in their best efforts to soundly defeat his challengers.
He stated, “We have delivered on our campaign promises and set our country on a path of economic progress. We are definitely out of the dark tunnel and are now at the cusp of reaping the benefits of a prosperous economy that will benefit all Nigerians.”
“As we march into the campaign season, we have many achievements to trumpet—let us confidently showcase our record and inspire hope in every corner of our nation. Let us soundly defeat all those forces who plan to take our country backwards.”
On Saturday, the Peoples Gazette reported that two women, Ngozi Olejeme, a former board chairman of Nigeria Social Insurance Trust Fund (NSITF) and Betta Edu, a former humanitarian affairs minister, fingered in over N1billion fraud, were also appointed as members of Mr Tinubu’s campaign council.
While Ms Olejeme is facing trial for N1billion fraud, Ms Edu is under investigation over alleged diversion of N585 million into private account, a development that led to her sack by Mr Tinubu in 2024.
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