Amen!!! Would love to use only Revolut, but it is hardly possible to take the (great) service as serious as it would deserve when you are not provided the simple essentials. And Revolut would have another opportunity to really shine with a neat app on the desktop if you compare with the āsolutionsā of common banks.
Seriously I have no idea why you are denying the fact that a lot of people are craving for a web app or some desktop interface. I would LOVE to do everything over Revolut, but not being able to simply copy+paste data like IBAN, subject, etc. of transactions from one window to another is so annoying that I use Transferwise. Revolut is offering a neat budgeting feature, but instead of being ārevolutionaryā easy and have everything out of one hand, it forces me to keep track of my finances in a spreadsheet cause this is the lesser of two evils: Either I do all the payments with Revolut and have to type IBANs out of emails on my phone by hand like being in a technological stone-age or I use more comfortable services WITH web-app and then have to summarize the payments in a spreadsheet and add up the amounts out of the app manually. I am choosing the latter since I would be distracted in my work if I had to look on my phone constantly whilst working.
Long story short: Not having a web app is simply super annoying and having one would increase my good experience of the service by more than 100%.
Iāve got some thoughts. I think this topic is very complex. And thatās one of the main reasons it takes so long to figure out a strategy.
- Should it be a MVP or a proper web desktop banking?
- Irony here: features like stock trading would profit most from the large screen, but are relevant for a small number of users and relatively complex to implement.
- Statistics show that people move away from web banking to apps. So it is limiting the product for some āheavy usersā, but no for most.
- Device independent access is a great user benefit, but it creates new security risks (websites are way easier to fake for phishing attempts, for example.)
- How to define the feature set? Bunq seems to struggle here. Developing both platforms is a lot of work. New features are usually only deployed for the app. People now get annoyed by the websiteās limited features.
- Some desktop banking tasks might be replaced by multi banking apps (open banking) in the not so distant future ā this is also an argument for web banking, since Revolut becomes a multi banking app itself.
My guess is they will come up with some sort of desktop banking experience eventually. I am all for it. But from their perspective, the priority for this is low. And a relatively fast pace in app development isnāt making this easier.
Thanks for your contribution, you made really great points!
All development these days is done in steps, and they do too. R Business web app started simple and they kept adding features in time.
I think thereās use cases for both mobile and desktop. One is not better than the other, it is simply more adapt to a certain context. And you can get a job done either way, itās just a matter of being very specific. Take Binance for example. It does a great job of allowing users manage their portfolio both on mobile and web/desktop (which is just an electron wrapper). So you can be successful on both, but none is enough to cover the use cases of the modern user.
Iād like to know more about it. As far as I understand, users just make use of alternative platforms depending on the context. So if you give them a mobile app they will use it when they are off their desks of course. Which doesnāt mean they are moving to mobile. They are simply being smart with the tools they have in context they are. As I said, no single platform can replace another, unless you are able to enclose the full feature set of the other platform with the first one.
Thatās correct, but not new at all. Revolut Business already works on the web. Additionally, Iād say that no matter what client you are considering, they all need to communicate to Revout server/cloud anyway. So that wouldnāt lessen the worry about security anyway. A web client is just another client, and thereās an abundance of experts in the field.
Have no experience with Bunq, but Iād be happy to start with the very basics of account management. Thereās already an API in place the ability of third parties to build custom Revolut clients with modern stacks based on React or Angular is demonstrated by the projects open sourced on github. Once you have an API in place, yes itās still a lot of work to provide a performant client, but itās not A LOT OF WORK. Revolut has been successful so far with the Business branch and porting features to the mobile platform as soon as possible. I donāt see the STRUGGLE (but Iām not saying itās not challenging either).
āSoftware ate the world, the web ate software, and JavaScript ate the web.ā Everything that can be developed in JS eventually will.
It may be. But I donāt get the need for a native desktop client, considering we are talking about a network-heavy application. There would little speed benefit if any. And it would be kind of expensive to maintain a performant app for each platform, unless you go Java, but thatās not native anyway.
Again, I appreciated the contribution, itās good food for thoughts
Those are all valid points, and none of the points I made were about convincing anybody that they shouldnāt offer web banking, or that those āproblemsā canāt be solved. My guess is, their decision to not offer it already, is mainly a business decision. I am relatively sure they evaluated this more than once, and decided to prioritize something else. To invest in something else instead. And the points I made were just some of the points I came up with that could have been relevant.
I wasnāt suggesting that. With āsort ofā, I was referring to the difference between a MVP (like N26) or a more comprehensive (web) application.
Frankly I would be happy to pay more to get the web app!
Sorry to hijack this thread but I CANNOT find how to start a topic of my own - just trying to find out what kind of protection Revolutās crypto has if they go bankrupt? Thanks.
So Revolut has either to decide what target group they put first or allocate their resources to satisfy both needs I suppose. In the end a web app seems to most people without a development-background like a trivial essential though and since there are not only two dudes demanding one, it probably would be a good move of Revolut to announce if they are working on something or dont intend to do anything about it.
I demand an answer if my needs will be satisfied! If yes I will kick Transferwise out the door and put up more funds on Revolut, but if not (as most dudes in a relationship) I will keep cheating on Revolut and constantly get down good on Transferwise!
I agree, it is necessary the web portal!!
All banks, like Revolut, have one!!
Just wanna add my 2c: I also think a web app would be super nice to see. And to the people that said here that a web app is āold schoolā and āanti-disruptiveā: I vehemently disagree, in fact, Iād say having a web app is the complete opposite of old-school. Services these days are more and more expected to be ubiquitous and not bound to a single device type. In fact, probably the most modern approach I can think of is having ONLY a web app and running it on all platforms, including mobile. Different form factors come with different strengths, and especially for banking thereās quite a lot of use-cases that would be more effective & comfortable to carry out on a big screen.
I use both N26 and Revolut, and while I generally much prefer Revolutās UI, features, and general vibe, the N26 web app is extremely useful and convenient to have, especially when needing to grab PDF statements, managing standing orders or just for checking your balance real quick while sitting at your desk.
+1. I seriously dislike doing sophisticated or serious tasks using my phone. Money transactions are exactly that.
Even if it was true, wouldnāt losing your phone worry you a little?
Maybe you never lose your phone, what if it gets stolen?
I didnāt know that Frank. Thanks for the reminder.
Here is the reference if anyone is interested:
Issue is: when your phone (and card) get stolen - how to call the phone-number? (other than hoping that a friendly receptionist helps you out in the hotel lobby)
In that case you could try https://www.revolut.com/de-DE/kontaktiere-uns where they offer a hotline. However, youāre right: I never lost a phone. Manly because itās quite expensive to do so. I never had a phone stolen as well. In that case I need to rely on the phoneās and companies security.
Anyways: There are many apps out there with no web interface and if thatās the concept it might have various reasons. Revolut is free for Standard users but those users cause costs as well. Business e.g. has different structures.
And if thereās a web app you need that friend or friendly receptionist to let you use their computer. And most likely youāll log in to your account from a machine you donāt control and more of a problem: a web app will require 2FA. So I hope you then carry backup codes printed out or quickly receive a replacement SIM to receive the SMS.
True that, BUT every hotel has a public āinternet stationā in the lobby - so people can do the online-checkin for their flight.
The only thing you need: access to that station, your login-name and password to reach the āblock the cardā-feature.
Obviously, the web-app should have more functionality, which could be hidden behind a ātwo factor-autentificationā - but the ātwofactorā shouldnāt be needed for the āblock the card NOWā-thing, as oneād have the need for that only, if both card and cellphone are āgoneāā¦
ALSO the webapp wouldnāt need to call an international phone-number, which in several countries might cost some SEVERE fees.
Why there is not official info about this feature from Revolut?
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