BHIM stands for Bharat Interface for Money , which is an easy way of transferring money from one bank account to another via a smartphone using the Unified Payments Interface (UPI) platform. It is an instant payments application meant for sending money as well as requesting for payments.
BHIM is no different than UPI.
But in the case of BHIM, customers don’t have to download mobile applications of multiple banks, instead a single BHIM app downloaded from Android Play Store is sufficient. Other than that, payments can be made through a virtual payments ID or through account number and IFS code, same as UPI.
BHIM can be used across android smartphones with version 4.0 and above, also it will be made available on iPhones and Windows smartphones very soon. Further, for feature phone users they need to use the USSD feature by dialing *99#.
With various banks managing their own apps, any kind of bug or glitch reported in the UPI platform took a long time to be resolved due to lack of centralised control. NPCI, which manages the railroads of UPI and also BHIM , says it is easier to fix bugs and update the new app in case of issues.
Bank customers need to download BHIM from Android PlayStore and then register with the app using their mobile number registered with the bank. Following which, an OTP will be sent to them for verification. Customers then need to create a UPI personal identification number and provide their debit card details to activate the account.