What's new in Kose.
Every update we've shipped to the rider and driver apps. Newest first. Listed by the date the update reached riders and drivers — not when the work started.
Trust, polish, and a smoother sign-up.
A maintenance and UX-regression closeout after 2.0.3 surfaced rough edges in real-world use. The big themes: faster sign-up for new drivers, fewer surprise logouts on flaky networks, and a referral programme that runs end-to-end.
For drivers
- Faster, more reliable onboarding. A rare race condition between completing your profile and toggling "Go Online" is gone — drivers can now start earning the moment registration completes.
- Lean onboarding banner on Home — "Quick start, just 3 things to start earning" — so new drivers see exactly what's left before their first trip.
- Document Centre split out from the Vehicle section in the side menu, so renewing your roadworthy or PSV permit doesn't require digging.
- Daily earnings now show the right number — the "Today" card was incorrectly summing the last seven days.
- Kose Care chip on the side menu shows your dispatch status (Active / Paused) at a glance.
- Referrals end-to-end — invite another driver during sign-up. Both of you earn $5 ($2.50 when they're approved, $2.50 on their first ride).
- Single Google sign-in pill replaces the cluttered Google/Apple icon row.
For riders
- No more surprise sign-outs. Splash now keeps you signed in unless the server explicitly says your token is invalid — flaky reception or a brief 5xx no longer kicks you to the login screen.
- Trust Centre shows ratings and blocks from your perspective, not theirs.
- Rewards screen now opens correctly for every account (was showing a closed-beta fallback for some).
- Notifications tab restored — was silently broken after the 2.0.3 rebuild.
- Kose Care now uses tabs to switch between loved ones (children, elders) instead of a long stacked list.
- Top-up screen shows Paynow only in Zimbabwe — fewer gateway choices, less decision fatigue at launch.
- Referrals end-to-end — invite friends. Both of you earn $0.50 on every paid ride they take, for their first 10. Up to $5 each.
Behind the scenes
- Phone-number normalisation across the auth flow — fixes a bug where some Zimbabwean numbers couldn't receive an OTP.
- OTP delivery now routes through WhatsApp, Africa's Talking and Twilio with automatic fallback — designed for the realities of Zimbabwean mobile networks.
- Auth throttle moved from "5/min per IP" to "5/min per phone-or-email" to stop one bad client locking out a shared network.
- Module registry self-heals — if the file ever drifts, the next request rewrites it from the canonical map.
- Session tokens now last 60 days, in line with how other ride apps handle stay-logged-in.
Account deletion, sign-up referrals and a hardened trip flow.
The release that brought the rider app to feature-parity with the driver app, closed Apple's account-deletion requirement (Guideline 5.1.1(v)), and added referral capture at sign-up. Also the release where we settled the iOS subscription purchase flow Apple flagged on earlier driver submissions.
For drivers
- iOS Google Maps SDK — drivers on iPhone now get the same fluid map experience as Android instead of Apple Maps' less detailed tiles.
- Active-trip recovery — if you close the app mid-trip and reopen it, you land back on the right screen automatically.
- Foreground-resume probe — coming back from a phone call or another app no longer leaves the trip screen in a stale state.
- OTP redesign across pickup, parcel handover and auth — clearer, faster, easier to share.
- Splash token validation — fixes a class of "I have to log in every time I open the app" bugs.
- In-app subscription via Apple IAP — clean state for active, expired, and free-trial.
For riders
- Account deletion built directly into the app — Account → Delete account. We honour requests within 30 days.
- Referral input at sign-up — enter a friend's code when you create your account. Both of you earn $0.50 on every ride you take, for your first 10.
- Cold-start active-trip recovery mirrored from driver — opening the app during a trip drops you back on the right screen.
- iOS Done accessory on number and phone pads — no more swiping down to dismiss a keyboard that won't go away.
- Back-press confirmation on Searching / Trip Assigned / Trip In Progress — protects you from leaving a trip with an accidental swipe.
The Kose redesign — from Hande to Kose.
The version where Hande became Kose. New brand, new colours (ink black, emerald green, Instrument Serif italics), new shape. Built around three real services Zimbabweans use every day: Ride, Send and Care.
For riders
- Bolt-style ride flow — Home → Where to → Pick a vehicle → Agree a fare → Track → Rate. Every step rebuilt around the way Harare actually moves.
- Name your price — Kose Bargain lets you offer the fare you think is fair. Drivers accept in seconds. No surge.
- Live trip tracking — driver name, plate, ETA, share-with-anyone link, and SOS at your thumb.
- Kose Care — same vetted driver every day for your kids' school run or your elder's clinic visit, with parent tracking and a daily PIN at drop-off.
- Kose Send — documents, lunches, the keys you left at the office. Real drivers, real-time tracking, door to door.
- Paynow integration — pay with EcoCash, OneMoney, InnBucks, or a card in your wallet.
For drivers
- 0% commission for the first 4 weeks of driving, then a fair, visible rate after that.
- Subscription model — pick a weekly plan that fits how much you drive. Pause anytime.
- Daily earnings on Home — see exactly what you've made today, this week, and where the next opportunity is.
- Trust Centre — block riders you don't want to see again, prefer the ones you do.
- Apple IAP on iOS for subscription payments; Paynow on Android.
Behind the scenes
- Backend renamed from Hande to Kose. New domain (kose.africa), new bundle IDs (africa.kose.app for rider, africa.kose.driver for driver), new branding throughout.
- Bargain backend (Option C1 fare model) — your offer adjusts the driver's commission only, never the floor.
- Backend state-machine guard in the trip repository to prevent invalid trip transitions on flaky networks.
- SafeRun (now Kose Care) backend rebuilt around vetted recurring trips with daily PIN handover.
Day one — the foundation.
The first version of what would become Kose. A working ride-hailing platform with payments, accounts, vehicles, drivers and trips — built on a battle-tested core, then rewritten end-to-end with the new Kose design system on top.
Most of what shipped in this phase isn't visible on the surface — it's the database, the dispatch engine, the wallet, the support ticket system, the SMS provider integrations, the maps, the payment gateways. Foundations only matter when they hold.
Africa moves with Kose.
We launch in Harare on 12 May 2026. Bulawayo and Victoria Falls join us by 1 June. The rest of Zimbabwe right behind, then across Africa.
If you want to know the moment your city goes live, drop us a line at business@kose.africa or follow us on Instagram. Spotted a bug? Tell us at support — every report goes to a real human in Harare and gets a reply the same day.