Safaricom’s My OneApp now works on Airtel data and Wi-Fi after latest updates

Safaricom’s My OneApp rollout was, to put it mildly, a total mess. The merger of the M-PESA and MySafaricom apps arrived with a long list of bugs, kinks, and questionable decisions that made the transition unnecessarily painful for users.

But to Safaricom’s credit, the company has been doing a decent job cleaning things up through incremental updates. Recent versions of the app have gradually addressed some of the issues that shipped with the new platform, including random logout problems that affected users after the rollout.

One of the more annoying issues I highlighted earlier was My OneApp’s insistence on using Safaricom mobile data, and worse, requiring the Safaricom SIM card to be in SIM 1. If you tried using Airtel mobile data, another carrier’s connection, or even Wi-Fi, the app would log you out once it detected the internet connection wasn’t coming from a Safaricom SIM in the first slot.

This made the app unnecessarily restrictive. After being logged out, attempts to reconnect often failed when the app tried to fetch the Safaricom number associated with the account. In all cases, the only workaround was to switch back to Safaricom mobile data, with the SIM placed in SIM 1, just to get into the app. For a super app meant to simplify access to M-PESA and Safaricom services, that was absurdly clunky.

However, the latest Android updates appear to have addressed this.

I first noticed the change on My OneApp v5.1.6 on Android. For the first time since the rollout, I was able to send and withdraw money while using Airtel mobile data. The app did not log me out, and everything worked as expected.

Even better, the app now behaves differently when reopening it after a period of inactivity. Like before, it still logs users out after idling for security reasons. But when I launch it again, the app attempts to fetch the Safaricom number linked to the account and eventually succeeds, even when I’m using Airtel data or Wi-Fi. Previously, this is exactly where it would fail and throw an error.

I have since updated to My OneApp v5.1.7 on Android, and the fix is still holding. That strongly suggests Safaricom has either fixed the issue in recent app builds, pushed a server-side change, or both.

On iOS, My OneApp is currently on v5.1.5. The changelog mentions B-LIVE bundles, a new Global Search UI, a Lipa na Bonga UX update, and unspecified bug fixes. Those of you with iPhones can chime in with your experience in the comments below.

That said, the fix may not have reached everyone yet. I’ve still seen a few reports from users who continue to experience random logouts and number-detection failures unless they switch back to Safaricom mobile data.

Still, based on my experience with the latest Android builds, Safaricom appears to have finally addressed one of My OneApp’s most frustrating restrictions. It took longer than it should have, but it’s finally here.