App Review - Orange Yame App
Tags: apps, review, tech
Published: 2021-07-14 16:44:22

---
title: App Review - Orange Yame App
published: true
description: With our phones becoming smarter and smarter, some of the things we used to stress over, like which code do I use to subscribe for social bundles, are now easy to execute though a mobile app, enter Orange Yame app 
tags: apps, review , tech
cover_image: https://dev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/articles/vquv6pggpnivphp6wm81.png
---
## Background 

Ever since **Covid-19** reached within our borders, we have relied more on our phones to do most things in order to limit having to go to the shops and buy airtime, get bundles and even get help. Since we are mostly on our smartphones, it backs the idea to have a mobile that will take the hassle of having to remember all those USSD codes used to get bundles like Social Bundles, Voice Bundles etc. Enter the Orange Yame App, promising to do all that without ever leaving the app.

> Orange Yame is a free application, which allows Orange Botswana customers to:

- Consult your account in real time: minutes, sms, internet ...
- Top up your account or a friend account with Orange Money
- Buy Internet Pass
- Discover the latest offers and promotions -
- Access to Orange services and applications
- Locate your Orange shops
- Find the answers to all your questions, the numbers of customer service in the support area
- Chat with an Orange expert
 
  Orange Yame  is a mobile secured self-care application that offers a personalized account management experience for Orange Botswana mobile customers. It allows customers to check their credit balance, see our latest data offers, find the nearest Orange Shops and manage their Orange account subscriptions.<cite>[Orange Botswana Website](https://www.orange.co.bw/en/apps/orange-yame.html)</cite>


## App Information

- **App Name (As it Appears on the Play/App Store):** Orange Yame  
- **Developers:** [Orange Botswana](https://orange.co.bw)  
- **[Link to the App on the Google Playstore](https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.orange.myorange.obw&hl=en&gl=US)** 
- **[Link to the App on the Apple Appstore](https://apps.apple.com/gb/app/orange-yame/id1195839458?l=en)** 
- **Available Platform(s):** Android and iOS 
- **Price:** Free. 

## Review

### Simplicity and Ease of Use
Once you open the app you have an overview of what your account, balances; Main Account balance followed by OnNet Balance and any other subscription you have. Below that is different ways to recharge your account, which also includes using your camera to detect numbers on a scratchcard(It's a weird feature to use and you have to pay attention. It does not auto validate or auto populate the numbers until there is a green prompt when you point the camera at the 14 digits)

There is a bundles section, that is one straight-forward, but it seems the options you get are specific to just the app and do not reflect what you will see on the USSD version. Which means some of the bundles on the app are not even available on the USSD version and vice versa.

Besides the above, everything is pretty much hyperlinks to the USSD app, so you're better off using the USSD version.

There is an assistant part, where you can chat with a Customer Service Representative without having to call(An introvert's wet dream💀), but unfortunately the service is only available between 8am and 5pm, which makes no sense!🤦🏿‍♂️

## Design

Design-wise the app is not too bad if you have no history of where it comes from, unfortunately I do😌, and it's trash🚮, hear me out; this app was built in 2014, and I commented on the design then, but nothing has really changed since then.

The app concept is on point, using Orange's colors, Black and Orange, and black is friendlier to the battery life. Orange works as a secondary color, but they also use it as an accent color on buttons and stuff.



### My Verdict

In my opinion th eap is useless, here is why, I can access all the services available on the app, and more by just typing *121#. Even though the app offers the convenience of just tapping the service I need, with the USSD, I can complete any service without ever leaving the USSD interface, whereas with the App, some of the services will definitely redirect me to USSD, which makes me question why I would have the app on my phone if it's just gonna redirect me to the USSD anyway. 

My suggestion to the Orange Yame developers is to make available everything on USSD natively on the app, I'm pretty sure they can open up the APIs for all of that. I don't want that bullshit excuse ya bo "WE ArE SaVinG ThE uSErS mEMoRy"


In relation to what the Orange team said the app offers, I can safely call cap on most of the things they said the app will offer:


- Consult your account in real time: minutes, sms, internet ✅
- Top up your account or a friend account with Orange Money ✅
- Buy Internet Pass ✅
- Discover the latest offers and promotions (NOT REALLY THE LATEST)❌
- Access to Orange services and applications ❗️ Some are not available
- Locate your Orange shops ❌
- Find the answers to all your questions, the numbers of customer service in the support area ❌
- Chat with an Orange expert ❗️ This one is conditional, as long as it's between 8am and 5pm


In conclusion, Orange should give us what they promised, do that and we will have another conversation regarding how it looks, which is not great. The carousel that shows Orange ads is annoying. Orange don't be like DSTV and advertize Orange services to Orange customers🤣. If you plan on rebuilding, I would suggest [Flutter](fluter.dev) because of it's friendliness. I am more than happy to assist with the design. At a fee of course :)

Thank you for going through my post, as usual, I am learning to write structured app reviews and it would be nice to get your feedback on my writing style. Do send in your feedback on the [Tech Review with Kes](m.me/techbw) Facebook Page and let me know if I should also include a re-imagined version of the app I'm reviewing. Stay tuned for the next review ✌🏿