Oyster card users can now check their pay as you go balance and top up their card with just a few quick taps of their smartphone after Transport for London launched its new app.

The app, which was designed by TfL and developed by Cubic Transportation Systems, is free to download via the Apple App Store and Google Play Store and enables customers to use their smartphone to quickly add pay as you go credit or Travelcards to their Oyster card.

These can then be added after 30 minutes by simply touching the Oyster card on the yellow card reader at any Tube or rail station, tram stop or River Bus pier as part of a journey.

Later this year, customers will be able to collect their top up by touching their Oyster card on the yellow card readers on any of London’s 9,000 buses.

The app also enables customers to view the last eight weeks of their journey history, check how much pay as you go credit they have on their Oyster card and provides, for the first time, a ‘low balance’ alert direct to their phone to help ensure they have enough pay as you go credit before they travel.

Additional functionality will be added, including the ability to apply for refunds for incomplete journeys.

Shashi Verma, chief technology officer at TfL, said: “Pay as you go with Oyster and Contactless has delivered greater convenience for our customers, and we are constantly trying to make further improvements.

“As smartphones become an increasingly essential part of our customers’ lives, we are introducing this app to make the process of buying and checking travel products as quick and convenient as possible.”

The new TfL app is the latest in a range of improvements to help make travelling using public transport in London as affordable and convenient as possible.

Last month, TfL introduced a number of improvements to the Oyster online system allowing anyone who tops up their pay as you go credit or buys Travelcards online to collect their purchase from any Tube or rail station, tram stop or River Bus pier when they touch in, rather than having to nominate a station when they make the purchase.