PayPal has redesigned its app to put paying your friends front and center

PayPal has given its mobile app for ios download and Android download a serious revamp, furbishing the software with a new, cleaner look, and putting its most popular function — sending and receiving money — front and center.

The company says that in the last two years it's seen a 100 percent growth in the number of peer-to-peer transactions made using the app, and has angled the redesign around this. This includes creating a new personalized hub that lets users see the people they pay and get paid by most, as well as making it simpler to request money from their mobile contacts. Basically, it sounds like PayPal wants to be a little bit more like millennials' favorite payment app Venmo — which PayPal bought in 2013, and which, coincidentally, crossed the major milestone of $1 billion in monthly transfers in January.

The changes aren't just cosmetic, either — PayPal has also rebuilt a lot of the app's supporting framework. TechCrunch reports that the behind-the-scenes changes make it easier for the company to add new features and localize the app in 26 different markets and 17 languages. Other new features include the ability to separate activity on your account by pending and completed transactions (something that Venmo has been criticized for), and new support for Android fingerprint authentication.

Speaking to TechCrunch, PayPal exec Jo Lambert says the redesign signals the company's new focus on mobile-first. Lambert adds that the company's next step is to think about money management as a whole: balancing a budget and setting financial goals. "We do see a place where PayPal will be a more meaningful player in a customer’s everyday financial life," says Lambert.