Venmo has unveiled its latest feature
Venmo Groups.In a move to streamline the process of managing shared expenses among various groups, Designed for families, roommates, clubs, sports teams, community organizations, and more, this feature offers users a convenient way to track, split, manage, and settle ongoing expenses within the familiar Venmo app interface.
Venmo Groups aims to replace traditional manual bookkeeping methods, such as spreadsheets or dedicated apps for specific clubs, activities, trips, or household bills. The new feature automates the calculation of each individual’s share of the overall spend, providing a seamless experience for users to settle their expenses.
This addition has the potential to impact the user base of single-purpose apps like Splitwise, which cater to organizing group expenses for various purposes, from local clubs to travel expenses on group trips. Venmo Groups builds on the app’s existing functionality, where friends commonly use Venmo to split bills during outings, and expands its usage to more formalized group expense management.
Erika Sanchez
Venmo’s Vice President and General Manager, expressed the challenges of managing group expenses and highlighted Venmo Groups as a highly requested solution. The feature allows everyone in the group to participate in expense management, eliminating the need for one person to track everything.
Apart from the advantage of using an app already familiar to many, Venmo Groups enables any member of the group to add expenses, view amounts due, and settle up. This flexibility enhances the user experience and promotes shared responsibility within the group.
The company anticipates that Venmo Groups will be embraced by various small groups, such as little league teams, neighborhood supper clubs, kickball teams, and book clubs. Positioned between the default “friends and family” mode and the client-vendor relationship commonly associated with Venmo, this feature caters to a broad range of group dynamics.
To access Groups, users can navigate to the “Me” page in the app, where they will find the new “Groups” tab. Here, they can easily create a group, add expenses, and settle up. The feature will initially roll out to select users today through the Venmo app for both iOS and Android, with a wider release expected in the coming weeks.
