Venmo has become my go-to app for simplifying payments between friends with its fun social feed showing recent transactions, emojis, and comments. Connecting my contacts enables me to easily search for friends to send charges for dinner, concert tickets, fantasy football bets, and more!
In this comprehensive guide, I‘ll overview how Venmo‘s friend search works, detail the process to build your friends list, and share some pro tips I‘ve learned from using Venmo since 2015. Let‘s get started!
How Venmo‘s Social Payment App Works
Venmo launched in 2009 as a free digital wallet app making it simple to transfer money between friends and contacts. It quickly became popular, especially with younger users, thanks to its newsfeed showing payments between connections with emoji reactions and comment capabilities giving transactions a fun, social feel.
In fact, Venmo processed over $51 billion in payment volume just in Q1 2022, up 21% from the $42 billion moved in Q1 2021 according to their latest earnings results. And a reported 90% of those transactions come from peer-to-peer payments between friends and contacts rather than merchants.
Venmo Quarterly Payment Volume
+----------------+------------------+
| Quarter | Payment Volume |
+----------------+------------------+
| Q1 2022 | $51 billion |
+----------------+------------------+
| Q1 2021 | $42 billion |
+----------------+------------------+
| Q1 2020 | $29 billion |
+----------------+------------------+So connecting with friends is key to maximizing Venmo‘s utility for quick, casual payments. Their search functions and contact syncing make finding your network easy!
Now I‘ll walk step-by-step through setting up your account, building your friends list, troubleshooting issues, and more. Let‘s dive in!