“Namashkar, Idu Nimma Pritiya Kichcha Sudeep”: PhonePe SmartSpeakers rope in actor Kichcha Sudeep for its celebrity voice feature

Bengaluru   : PhonePe, today announced the launch of a first-of-its-kind celebrity voice feature on its SmartSpeakers in collaboration with the famous Indian actor, Kichcha Sudeep. This new feature will allow PhonePe SmartSpeakers to validate customer payments in Karnataka film industry’s iconic actor Kichcha Sudeep’s distinct voice, in both Kannada and English across India.

The PhonePe SmartSpeaker was launched a year ago, and since then, more than 4.8  million devices have been used by merchant partners across 90% of the postal codes in the country. On average, PhonePe SmartSpeakers validate 17 crore monthly transactions in Karnataka, demonstrating its widespread adoption in the state. Using famous celebrity voices from different regions will make the payment experience for customers as well as merchants even more interactive.

Speaking on this new and distinctive offering, Yuvraj Singh Shekhawat, Chief Business Officer – Merchant Business at PhonePe said, “Our extensive network of over 3.8+ crore merchants is spread across different regions in India, each with its unique linguistic needs for payment validation. Through partnerships with various renowned celebrities, we are adapting and tailoring our services to meet such distinct needs of our merchants in a creative way. This ensures the efficient use of our devices while also boosting the appeal of the PhonePe SmartSpeaker among both merchants and customers.”

Here’s a step-by-step guide on how merchants can enable this new feature from their PhonePe for Business app.

1) Open the PhonePe for Business App

2) Go to the SmartSpeaker section on the home screen

3) Under ‘My SmartSpeaker’, click on ‘SmartSpeaker Voice’

4) Choose the desired celebrity’s voice in the preferred language

5) Click on ‘Confirm’ to activate the voice

6) The device gets rebooted with the updated language in the chosen celebrity’s voice within a few hours

PhonePe also recently launched the celebrity voice feature on its SmartSpeakers in collaboration with the iconic Indian actor, Shri. Amitabh Bachchan in Hindi and English with plans to roll this out in more languages in the future. Some of the other features that make PhonePe SmartSpeakers stand out in the market include portability, a best-in-class battery, great audio clarity even in the noisiest of environments, and the compact and versatile form factor which allows merchants to use it even in the most congested counter spaces. Earlier merchants using feature phones relied heavily on SMS, but now with the PhonePe SmartSpeakers, their payment validation experience has been significantly eased. PhonePe SmartSpeakers provide voice payment notifications in multiple Indian languages, with up to 4 days of battery life, dedicated data connectivity, a dedicated battery level LED indicator for ease of use, audio alerts for low battery levels, and a dedicated replay button for the last transaction. By offering such convenience to merchants, PhonePe is seeing the successful adoption of PhonePe’s SmartSpeakers in the market, thus enabling an increase in digital payments.