Smile API product updates in 2025 focused on smarter risk signals, higher-converting user journeys, and faster, more predictable integrations for fintech teams across the Philippines. From the launch of the highly customisable Wink Site V3 to significant expansions in our Signals risk suite and document processing capabilities, every update was designed to help you build more secure and seamless user journeys.
We focused on three themes that matter most to fintechs, lending businesses, and banks in the Philippines: stronger risk signals, higher-conversion user journeys, and faster, more predictable integrations for developers.
Rather than shipping isolated features, we invested in cohesive improvements across our Signals suite, Wink experiences, data coverage, and Developer Portal—helping teams move from experimentation to production with confidence.
Below is a recap of the most meaningful product updates from the past year.
Wink Site V3: Orchestrating Custom User Journeys
The release of Wink Site Version 3 shifted our platform from a static widget to a fully customisable user journey builder. This evolution allows for greater control over how data is collected and presented to end users.
- Customisable Journeys: Builders can now create multi-screen pages with a powerful routing feature that directs users based on their inputs.
- Enhanced Data Quality: New Input Validation rules for phone numbers, emails, and URLs ensure that the data collected is accurate and formatted correctly before submission.
- Dynamic Personalisation: Support for Form Field Variables and URL parameters allows you to prefill fields or display previous responses later in the flow for a personalised experience.
- Mobile-First Design: The site is now fully responsive, ensuring an optimal experience across mobile, tablet, and desktop devices.
- Built-in Content Tools: New Paragraph and Markdown components allow for the inclusion of helpful text, bulleted lists, and company logos directly within the journey.
Why this matters
- Increase completion rates by setting clear expectations for users
- Build trust through localized language and transparent data use
- Reduce drop-offs with better guidance and progress visibility
- Match your brand experience without heavy front-end work
- Stay compliant while improving user confidence in data sharing
Wink Widget: Refining the End-User Experience
We implemented several updates to the Wink Widget to improve loading speeds, clarity, and accessibility for a global audience.
- Visual Transparency: We expanded data transparency messaging platform-wide after seeing it improve conversion rates by clearly explaining what data is being accessed.
- Optimised Loading: By using cached data sources and minimising the widget's footprint, we significantly improved loading performance and reduced drop-offs.
- Simplified Navigation: Provider categories were consolidated into straightforward groups like Government Service and Gig Platforms, helping users find their data sources faster.
- Contextual Guidance: Added micro-interactions and contextual help text to login screens to guide users through authentication more smoothly.
- Improved Accessibility: We launched language localisation A/B tests in the Philippines, supporting Tagalog, Bisaya, Ilonggo, and Ilocano to make onboarding clearer for more users. While the minimal conversion uplift saw us revert these changes, Smile remains ready to launch this feature for special use cases.
Signals Suite: Advanced Risk and Fraud Detection
Our Signals suite saw massive growth this year, providing more actionable insights to improve credit decision-making and fraud prevention.
- Global Reach: The Multiple Application Warning (MAW) API and Borrower Behavior API launched and extended support to Mexico, Africa, and the Philippines.
- Comprehensive Footprints: The Digital Footprint API now supports lookups via mobile numbers and MD5-hashed identifiers, allowing for risk assessment while maintaining privacy.
- Proactive Security: The new Blacklist API helps detect high-risk individuals with histories of fraudulent activity or loan stacking across multiple platforms.
- Innovative Modelling: We introduced Experimental Risk Factors, which are proprietary variables derived from complex behavioural patterns that you can backtest against historical data.
- Market Expansion: We soft-launched a new Mexico Social Security API, providing real-time access to employment details, income, and tenure.
Why this matters
- Detect loan stacking and repeat applications earlier in the funnel
- Improve underwriting accuracy using alternative and behavioral signals
- Reduce fraud losses without adding friction to good borrowers
- Support mobile-first Philippine use cases where email is not always reliable
- Enable data-driven experimentation without committing prematurely to new risk variables
Snap: Automated Document Intelligence
Our document processing capabilities under Smile Snap expanded to include more utility types and automated validation tools.
- Automated Payslip Validation: This new feature allows you to integrate automated checks for payslip authenticity into your onboarding workflows, reducing manual reviews.
- Utility Bill OCR: In addition to telecommunications, we now support OCR for water and electricity bills, enabling faster verification of utility information.
- Rich Data Exports: We added the latest employer field to account exports, providing deeper insights when reviewing employment information in PDF or CSV formats.
Why this matters
- Faster KYC and verification using trusted primary data sources
- More flexible onboarding for users without traditional credit histories
- Reduced manual document review through structured OCR outputs
- Higher approval confidence using verified income, employment, and payment data
- Greater coverage for both domestic and cross-border use cases
Developer Portal: Empowering Integration Teams
We reorganised the Developer Portal to streamline your workflow and provide better tools for managing live integrations.
- Simplified Navigation: Tools are now grouped by core product lines—Wink, Snap, and Signals—to help you find relevant documentation faster.
- Autonomous Key Management: Developers can now generate, rotate, and delete API keys directly in the portal to maintain high security standards.
- Real-time Permissions: Production environment permissions now update in real-time, eliminating the need to refresh sessions when managing access.
- Data Control: You can now revoke connected accounts or archives directly from the portal to address end-user privacy requests without needing backend support.
- Enhanced Monitoring: New webhooks for form submissions and resets allow your systems to stay in sync with user activity in real-time.
Why this matters
- Shorter integration timelines from sandbox to production
- Fewer surprises when scaling API usage
- Stronger security hygiene through key rotation
- Easier troubleshooting with better logs and feedback
- Improved collaboration between product, risk, and engineering teams
Looking Ahead
The progress made in 2025 reflects our long-term commitment to helping Philippine fintechs, lenders, and banks make better decisions with less friction—for both their teams and their customers.
In 2026, we’ll continue investing in:
- Deeper risk intelligence
- Broader local data coverage
- Even more transparent and user-friendly consent experiences
These improvements were shaped by conversations with teams across the ecosystem, and we’re excited to keep building better experiences moving forward!