Netone Silently Launches An Android Mobile App

You know the long boring process of responding to many prompts so that you can buy internet or WhatsApp bundles on Netone. You respond to at least 4 prompts just to buy the bundles.  

Thank God Netone has introduced an Android App that dodges this long procedure. Econet and Telecel already had similar apps. It was up until now that Netone had not joined the bandwagon. Netone’s app helps its customers do a range of things from checking balance to buying bundles to even call their call center by effortlessly pressing an icon on its new app.

What kind of app is it? 

The Netone app is a USSD app meaning that its an app which doesn’t require internet connectivity to use it. This becomes handy for Netone users because data is relatively pricey for them since data is generally expensive across all networks in Zimbabwe. The app essentially dials the USSD for buying bundles or requesting airtime credit or sending a call back on your behalf. As any USSD app, Netone’s app works only when you have a Netone line in the phone.

What functions are there on the App?

• Check balance: rather than dialing *134#, now you can just press the ‘Check balance’ icon
• Airtime Top-up: instead of dialing *133#, now you can press the ‘Airtime Top-up’ icon and start to enter your recharge number
• One fusion: to top up your One Fusion, you now simply press the ‘One fusion’ icon and enter the recharge number
• Airtime credit: you can now press the ‘airtime credit’ icon and a prompt pops up to select your preferred credit amount
• Call back: you can now press the ‘Call back’ icon and just enter the number you want to send a callback
• Data bundles: instead of dialing *171#, you can now just press the ‘Data bundles’ icon and start to choose the data package you prefer by responding to the prompts.
• One music: instead of dialing 335, now you can just press the ‘One music’ icon
• Easycover: you can now press the ‘Easycover’ icon and proceed to enter your pin
• One radio: instead of dialing 336, from now on you can just press the ‘One radio’ icon and start to listen to your radio
• Call center: instead of dialing 123, you now press the ‘Call center’ icon
• News on one: instead of dialing 337, you can now press the ‘News on one’ icon and start to listen to the news

As you can see the app doesn’t really dodge every nuisance of having to respond to prompts (particularly for buying bundles, Easycover and One fusion). A handful of USSD codes still need a user to do the tedious process of responding to prompts. Whilst it might seem that the app has negligible changes to better a user’s experience, I think that the little changes make life a bit easier.

I like the app because it’s just simpler to use and anyone can use. Since the app is basically just dialing the USSD for you, it doesn’t attract any extra charges for itself. Also, the app can be used on virtually most Android phone (starting from Android Kit Kat).

You can download the app by following this link