Octopus to test new customize tapping sounds at year's end

The public can customize their Octopus to make different sounds when tapping them, the Octopus card company announced on Tuesday.

The company announced that they are going to add further customization to their Octopus, such as allowing them to change the sound effect of tapping their cards into animal sounds or even pre-recorded sounds.

Jeny Yeung Mei-chun, the managing director of Hong Kong transport services, and the chief executive of Octopus, Tim Ying Tien-chi, showcased the new function during a tea gathering with the media.

When they tapped the card, the card reader made a sound of a cat meowing, and the screen temporarily showed an animation of the cat.

They stated that the new function will begin testing at the end of the year at the earliest but will not be in use on public transportation in order to prevent affecting the drivers in confirming payments.

In the future, Octopus will also study different functions, such as using a new card reader to allow customers to receive coupons when paying with their Octopus, using the Octopus app to call taxis, allowing automatic redemption of parking coupons to avoid customers lining up after spending, launching Octopus card readers with voice recognition to help people with disabilities, etc.

In addition, after Octopus opened its taxi payment network, it was found that the number of taxi drivers collecting payments through the Octopus App for Business increased by 20 percent from 21,000 in January this year to 25,000. In the past four years, the use of Octopus in taxis has also increased tenfold.

Currently, Octopus customers traveling to Thailand can use the Octopus app to scan PromptPay QR codes to pay Thai merchants.

Octopus Company said that around the summer vacation, the average daily payment of users using related services increased by 50 percent. Some customers will use the service on occasions such as playing with go-karts, temple donations, hospitals, etc.