The latest update to Safaricom’s main mobile application now adds a key feature: biometric lock protection.
Upon updating to version 1.2 of the app, which is currently seeding via the Google Play Store, users are prompted to set up a fingerprint unlock mechanism to protect the app.
This only happens on devices that have fingerprint scanners. Users of Android devices without fingerprint scanners won’t receive the prompt.
The activation process is much simpler and, should one opt not to set it up upon updating, it can always be enabled later from the Account section of the app. The same steps can be followed should one need to deactivate the feature. One can also set when the fingerprint lock protection kicks in: immediately, after a minute, after 15 minutes or after an hour. The addition of biometric lock to the mySafaricom app is the latest in a bevy of additions making their way to the app since it exited beta 2 months ago.
The app’s first major update, version 1.1, added granular data to M-Pesa statements, bringing to the app the much-requested features that made another Safaricom app, M-Ledger, popular back in the day.
So far, the Safaricom has netted over 500,000 downloads on the Google Play Store and remains accessible on other platforms like Huawei’s AppGallery since most Huawei devices released in 2020 arrive without Google Play services.