NPCI's Hello UPI let feature-phone users pay by voice, no data needed

India's UPI was a smartphone product: it required an app, internet and reading a screen, which excluded many Indians on feature phones and low-literacy users. In September 2023 RBI Governor Shaktikanta Das launched 'Hello! UPI' at the Global Fintech Fest to close that gap.

The feature makes UPI conversational. A user says 'Hello <app name>' to wake the assistant, then pays a saved contact, scans a QR, checks a balance or gets onboarding help by voice. On-call mode runs through an IVR on the existing UPI 123Pay telephony rails, so a feature phone with no internet can transact; the UPI PIN, entered on the keypad, authorises each payment.

NPCI's October 2023 guidelines set the rules: on-call payments were capped at ₹1,000 per transaction and five per day, channels were tagged as in-app, on-call or IoT, and members had to enable the feature by March 31, 2024. English and Hindi launched first, with about a dozen regional languages following.

The design lowered barriers instead of adding hardware: the phone call is the channel, the PIN is the security, and voice navigation helps senior citizens, low-literacy users and the visually impaired — financial inclusion built on infrastructure people already have.

Pay by voice call — no smartphone or data needed

On-call payments need no internet, so feature-phone users can transact

The UPI PIN on the keypad keeps security without a smartphone

Voice navigation lowers literacy and accessibility barriers, reaching new users

Reusing UPI 123Pay's telephony rails meant no new hardware or rollout cost

Meet users on the channel they already own. Reusing the phone call and voice, with the UPI PIN for security, extended payments to feature-phone users without requiring a smartphone or data.

NPCI required all UPI members to enable Hello UPI by March 31, 2024 and planned support for a dozen regional languages beyond English and Hindi. The feature extended UPI to feature-phone users and made voice a mainstream payment interface, following the pattern of earlier inclusion moves like UPI 123Pay and UPI Lite — each pushing the same rail further toward users the smartphone app could not serve.