Since its launch in late 2018 and an updated version in 2020, My Moscow mobile app’s services such as, My Payments and News & Events sections now have users over 100,000, according to Moscow’s Department of Information Technologies.
The ease of finding services and information using the app, has led to a 5.5 percent increase in the number of users receiving at least one service via the app per month. Similarly, the number of views of news in the News and Events section grew by 2.6 times, while clicks on the My Payments section were up 1.3 times compared to the end of 2020.
The new look of the app shows the sections in blocks rather than a single screen. The user-friendly application is efficient as it allows users to visit the section they need and get the information that is relevant to them at a specific time. For instance, the average number of clicks in the News and Events section per month now exceeds 100,000 compared to 40,000 in December.
In My Payments section users can check if their bills have already been issued, which is automatically displayed in the section based on profile information, and can pay them with a couple of clicks. The section received over 130,000 visits in January, compared to about 100,000 monthly visits in late 2020
The section can now set up a handy bill filter, and it also offers the opportunity to receive, view and sends unified electronic payment documents (UPD) via messengers. The UPDs are the most popular types of payment made by residents via the app. Payment of bills for electricity and educational services, such as study and hobby groups, as well as top-ups to “Moskvenok” personal accounts.
Currently, the new features will be working in iOS devices only but they will soon be available to Android users as well. The redesign of the home screen will display widgets alerting the user of upcoming appointments with doctors, deadlines for submission of utility meter readings or vehicle impoundment messages, etc. New widgets will be added to cover additional subjects in the future.
As part of the new version, a voice assistant feature is in the testing phase. It is only available to the 10 percent of subscribers who use iOS devices, but it will soon work for everyone. Using speech recognition technology, users can simply ask questions for the information they need. Currently, the voice assistant can address nine issues --initiating the process of submitting water and electricity meter readings, showing unpaid bills for utilities or afterschool activities, information on children’s school grades, homework and class schedules, checking the balance of the user’s “Moskvenok” personal account and cancelling doctor’s appointments.
The updated app shows news in the relevant section and is displayed as a single newsline and the messages can be filtered by subject matter, such as Culture, Social Sphere, Coronavirus, Transportation, and so on. Users can now pay their MGTS landline phones with the app. User can read region specific news based on the information they provide during registration with the app.
The My Moscow app earned a silver award in the efficient government category in the 2020 World Smart Sustainable Cities Organisation (WeGo) Awards.