At the start of 2025, we made a conscious decision at Emma.

We were not going to optimise for how many features we shipped. We were going to optimise for how people actually experience money in real life.

Because the truth is that most personal finance tools are built for a version of life that rarely exists. One account. Clean splits. Fixed budgets. Predictable months. Clear goals.

Real life is none of those things.

Money is shared, uneven, emotional and constantly changing. It moves between friends, partners, colleagues and families. It comes from different accounts. It gets saved slowly. It is compared month to month. And it creates stress when tools try to force simplicity where there is none.

Everything we built this year came from accepting that reality instead of fighting it.

We started with shared money, because that is where friction shows up fastest. Expenses are rarely split evenly, so we introduced Custom Split to let people divide costs by percentage, share or exact amount. We then made it possible to settle everything at once with Settle in Group, because money between people should not require spreadsheets, reminders or awkward conversations.

From there, we looked at budgeting. Traditional budgeting assumes discipline first and understanding later. We flipped that around. Auto Budget uses your real spending history to create a plan that adapts to how you actually live. Monthly comparison then adds context by showing how one month compares to the last, not to judge behaviour, but to help people notice patterns before they become problems.

Saving followed the same philosophy. People do not fail to save because they do not care. They fail because saving requires effort, timing and confidence. Monthly Autosave removes the effort by running in the background. Super Pot adds confidence by combining competitive returns with up to £360,000 of FSCS protection. Together, they turn saving from a decision you have to keep making into a system that quietly works for you.

As people’s financial lives grew more complex, we focused on clarity. We rebuilt transaction search so finding a payment takes seconds, not scrolling. We added subcategories so spending makes sense at a level that actually changes behaviour. Eating out is vague. Morning coffee and pubs and bars are not. We redesigned the net worth graph so people can see progress over time instead of isolated snapshots, because long term confidence comes from perspective, not perfection.

We also accepted that modern money does not live in one place. With Quick Pay from Account, people can now pay directly from their linked accounts instantly, choosing the right balance without switching apps or losing context. Small friction adds up. Removing it matters.

In 2025, Emma also moved beyond purely individual use cases. With Emma for Employers, companies can now offer financial wellbeing as a real benefit, not a lecture or a PDF. With Emma Gift, people can give something genuinely useful to the people they care about, not another object, but better money habits.

Individually, none of these features are revolutionary. Together, they reflect something deeper.

We believe good financial tools should adapt to people, not the other way around. Automation should reduce stress, not demand attention. Transparency should build confidence, not pressure. And the best products should fade into the background and quietly do their job.

2025 was not about building louder features. It was about building trust.

As we head into the next year, that will remain our focus. Not chasing complexity. Not designing for ideal behaviour. But building tools that respect how people really live with money every day.

That is what we chose to build this year.