• Source:JND
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Bharat Interface for Money (BHIM), developed by the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI), was one of the earliest applications designed to promote UPI (Unified Payments Interface). At that time, competitors like PhonePe, Google Pay and Paytm quickly outgrew BHIM; their rapid expansion left it behind. That has since changed. BHIM now leads these applications in terms of market growth.

As of June 2025, BHIM UPI transaction numbers soared to 79.58 million, nearly tripling the 25.52 million transactions from the previous year. For far too long, BHIM's UPI transaction numbers stagnated around 16 to 25 million. So, what is behind this surge in growth? Let us break it down.

Government Push for Digital Payments

As a result of the UPI initiative, on December 2016, BHIM was introduced by Prime Minister Modi after demonetization. The intention was to help aid the economy shift from cash transactions to digital ones, and to reduce the prevalence of black money.

PhonePe and Google Pay greatly impacted BHIM as their apps offered smoother user experiences and features that were more attractive to users. Frequent technical problems and an obsolete design did not help BHIM's reputation.

After the overhaul in 2019, the interface was improved. However, transaction volumes still lagged behind competitors.

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BHIM 3.0: A Game-Changer

NPCI initiated BHIM 3.0 earlier this year, and with it came a major overhaul in features and usability. Some of the most important changes are as follows:

  • Cashback and discount offers
  • Spend analytics and expense split options
  • Hyper-personalisation for better navigation
  • Family Mode to manage shared expenses
  • “Refer friends & family” rewards

NPCI aims to supplement the top UPI apps in the Indian market through BHIM, making it as feature-rich and user-friendly as possible.

Key Innovations Driving Engagement

Family Mode

This feature enables primary users to onboard family members, track expenditures, as well as duty assignment for payment responsibilities. It represents a major leap for household expense management.

UPI Circle

This feature allows a primary user to issue a secondary user a limited authorisation for transactions with instant notifications.

IPO Payment Integration

UPI Payment continues to BHIM for Por IPO payment mandates on NSE and BSE as users can make payments through UPI ID effortlessly.

Insights from NPCI Leadership

Research in user behaviour and interactions with the app are NPCI BHIM CEO as distinct areas of focus before the BHIM 3.0 launch for most users, as shared by Lalitha Nataraj.

“We studied user expectations and worked on improving the experience. Many early users didn’t realise the app had evolved, so we had to win them back,” she said.

The result of this user focus, designed for easier navigation, led NPCI to opt for discount features alongside cashback BHIM, alongside discount promissory schemes for users during their targeted return of users.

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User Research and Feedback

Before the rollout of BHIM 3.0, NPCI conducted multiple city surveys to understand critical areas of user friction. This helped with:

  • A simplified interface with day and night modes
  • A prominent “Balance Check” feature
  • Reminders for UPI Lite top-ups and RuPay credit card linking

Retention is the primary focus now, alleviating the concerns that users faced with recurring transactional issues that previously caused them to abandon the platform.

What’s Next for BHIM?

In the future, BHIM might implement:

  • Loan and insurance referrals
  • Savings and investment options
  • Travel, transit, and DTH/cable TV recharges

The aim is to minimise over-reliance on temporary incentives while expanding the range of transaction types, including peer-to-peer (P2P) and person-to-merchant (P2M) payments, quarterly and monthly subscriptions, and even IPO mandate payments.

Final Thoughts

Thoughtful user research and feature-rich updates, combined with overwhelming government support, have helped BHIM in correcting the trajectory of its comeback story. With the recent updates in BHIM 3.0, the app has once again joined the race in digital payments, proving that user experience and system dependability are as critical as incentives. Should the planned features like loans and savings tools be BHIM smoothly be implemented, the app has the potential to contend once again to the foremost UPI platforms in India.