Venmo Is Redesigning Its App to Hide Global Payments Feed and Improve Privacy

Venmo is getting some changes, and soon users will no longer be able to view public payment activity within the app.

Venmo is one of the most popular payments apps available today. People regularly use it to pay their friends or family back and to pay small businesses for goods and services. If you use the app, you've probably noticed the global payments feed, where you can see every payment made on the app that's marked as viewable to the public. This public feed has caused privacy concerns for some users. As a result, Venmo is doing a redesign to hide the global payments feed and improve privacy. Find out more about these upcoming changes.

Venmo already offers some privacy features

Venmo has made updates to improve privacy in the past. Users can set the payment activity privacy settings to public, friends only, or private (between only the sender and recipient). This setting gives users more control over who can see their Venmo activity.

Additionally, users can change their privacy settings to control whether their friends list is private, viewable to friends, or viewable to anyone. Users can also control whether they're listed on other users' friends lists.

Despite these settings, some users still found it odd that they can see all payments set as public on the global payments feed. Plus, not everyone who uses the app realizes they can change the privacy settings to hide their activities or make them viewable to only friends or recipients of their payments.

The global payments feed is being removed

Because of those privacy concerns, Venmo is redesigning the app to get rid of the global payments feed. Venmo is rolling out this update now to select users, and the change will be available to all customers in the coming weeks. Make sure your app is up to date to see the changes.

With the new design, only the friends feed and a feed that shows a user's personal transactions will be available. If you've had privacy concerns about Venmo in the past, you may now feel better about your experience using the app.

Four tips to remember when using payments apps

Using payments apps is a normal part of life now. If you're using these apps to pay others, make sure you're smart about protecting yourself. You can take steps to protect your privacy and avoid scams. Here are some suggestions:

1. Only use payments apps to pay people you know. This way, you know you're not getting scammed.
2. Verify all information. It's easy to make mistakes -- like sending a payment to the wrong username. Verify all information before sending a payment.
3. Don't click on links. If you get an email or text requesting you to make a payment, don't click on the link. Instead, go directly into your payments app to make the payment so you don't click on a potential phishing scam link.
4. Check your privacy settings. If you want your transactions and activity to remain private, take a look at your privacy settings and adjust them accordingly.

With its upcoming privacy changes, Venmo might meet your needs. But if you're still searching for a mobile app to make payments, check out our list of top payments apps. We've done the research and outlined the pros and cons of the most popular apps so you can find the right option for you.