PayPal’s Venmo is rolling out a refreshed mobile experience that puts privacy front‑and‑center. During onboarding, users choose whether new posts appear to everyone, just friends, or remain private, replacing the platform’s historic default of public sharing and reducing accidental exposure of personal spending habits, especially for younger users on college campuses.

Existing accounts can tweak the same visibility choices anytime via the settings menu, and a revised payment flow flags who will see each transaction—public, friends‑only, or private. Venmo senior vice president and general manager Alexis Sowa says the tweak aims to boost user trust by making sharing decisions explicit. The rollout starts with a new feed design on both Android and iOS.

By surfacing privacy options up front, Venmo hopes to curb the accidental viral spread of payment memes that have plagued the service. Users who prefer discretion can lock their activity without navigating deep menus, while still preserving the social feed that differentiates Venmo from rival payment apps. The change signals a broader industry shift toward granular sharing controls.