With mySafaricom, Why Does Safaricom Home Fibre App Exist?

Safaricom has tens of products that can easily be accessed on its phone utility app, mySafaricom. The evolving nature of the app is perhaps what makes it an attractive tool since new features always get integrated on it in a timely manner. However, we do not understand why the telco decided to create an unreleased app (you can still download it, though) just for Home Fiber users instead introducing it as an option on the main app.

Nevertheless, the app is here to serve interested parties out of the 213,000 households that enjoy its service. It would appear that this demographic is big enough to guarantee an app that seems to do four major things: give an overview of a subscriber’s Home Fiber subscription (such as service type, price, speeds and location); showcase existing products for a perusal just in case a user wants to upgrade or downgrade his/her existing plan; answer frequently asked questions; and lastly, a profile section that shows account information and Home information.

Setup

After downloading the app, setting it up is straightforward. Similar to mySafaricom app, you just enter your phone address that activates your account after authentication via a one-time password. Afterwards, you are greeted to a home page with four bottom tabs that highlight the app’s main features.

Home

As I mentioned, this tab summarizes your account details. Generally speaking, you can view the status of your Home Fiber at a single glance. There is nothing more here, and it is as simple as that.

Products

For some time, FTTH was sold solely without any additions. About two months ago, however, the carrier supplemented the product with a Plus option that offers data, voice, and SMS for the phone of the account holder at an extra fee. The two products, dubbed Home Fibre and Fibre Plus appear here with their updated prices (thanks to the Finance Act 2018).

Missing are the insurance plans that were announced the other day, but this is something that can be added in a future update or when the app goes live for the masses.

Get Help

This section is populated with FAQs and an option to reach the Fibre team via Twitter, Facebook, email or phone.

My Profile

Want to know when your account is due for re-subscription? How about if you have an overpayment? This section has all that information, as well as your house number, estate name and so forth. Also, there is an option to edit your profile picture. Lastly, this is where you will find the log out button.

Summary

At the moment, it is safe to assume that mySafaricom app is already too cluttered to support another product as robust as Home Fibre. The features of the new app, while not substantial per se, can easily overwhelm or bloat an already excellent experience on mySafaricom, which is probably why the Home app exists. Additionally, it is likely Safaricom wants to separate Home’s brand from existing products, which makes sense owing to the popularity tied to its reliability.

We will update you once the app is live fully.