In terms of active users, the internet is still the most important channel. "Mobile in many cases is doing more transactions but has fewer users. Internet is still the king," Gaynor explained.

He added one troubling trend is the irregularity of updates. "We do 10 relatively meaty releases a year and clients are only absorbing two. You should be doing three, four updates a year. Updates drive usage. Every time you launch a feature we see active usage increase incrementally more than organic growth."

Payments present an important opportunity. Last fall, the Scottsdale, Ariz.-based Early Warning announced its peer-to-peer payments vehicle Zelle Network, which enables participating institutions (19 are currently signed) to send money to anyone with a U.S. credit union or bank account. The $9.1 billion, Mountain View, Calif.-based First Tech Federal Credit Union has played a direct role in Zelle's official advisory council and advocated for credit union values.

First Tech Director of Cards and Payments Brian Ziff-Levine held the real issue when it comes to P2P is ubiquity in consumer use. "That's why many consumers have turned to solutions like Square Cash or Venmo to send money to one another, because it is much easier to use," he said.

Zelle is especially appealing from a mobile perspective because of its ubiquity. The network provides the links to other financial institutions' depository accounts so members can send and receive money from almost anyone.

"Every partner will do their own implementation of Zelle, but the platform itself is universal. Our members will be able to send money to Chase customers, and Chase customers will be able to send money to our customers," Ziff-Levine said.

Ziff-Levine emphasized it's very important to ensure core functionalities – the ability to check balances, make deposits and transfers, and apply for loans – are all rock solid and easily accessed by members before moving onto future and forward functionalities.

"If you don't know the way your members are using your app, and struggling with it and succeeding with it, you are never going to be able to ensure you're designing a delightful experience for those members," Ziff-Levine said.

He also suggested adding convenience, such as prefilled forms, makes mobile more useful and relevant.

Then there are the Internet of Things-connected devices. "Financial institutions need to ensure we can integrate with those platforms going forward or we will be left out," Ziff-Levine stated.

The Austin, Texas-based Kony announced it helped provide the $1.5 billion, Burbank, Calif.-based Partners Federal Credit Union, which serves cast members (employees) of The Walt Disney Company, with a differentiated mobile experience and ease of use. The cloud-based Kony Mobility Platform enables Partners to quickly develop and deliver member mobile apps, and accelerate membership adoption and growth. The recently released Kony AppVantage includes a pre-built app for retail banking.

Chris Parker, Partner's chief member service officer, who oversees all channels, sees four prevalent trends:

1. Removing friction from the member experience. That means fewer clicks, including for payments.

2. Making data actionable, investing in business intelligence and understanding members' stated and unstated needs.

3. Offering a unified experience. Some call this omnichannel (an industry buzzword), but Partners prefers optichannel, which means "trying to drive and optimize key core experiences across all of the channels." This includes opening a new membership, loan or share account via phone, digitally (online or mobile) or in-branch.

4. Expanding digital payments. "How to get people to move and manage money from a single platform, that's big," Parker said.

When it comes to payments, Partners Chief Marketing Officer Mike Terzian said, "Digital payments (Apple Pay, Android Pay and Samsung Pay) are ready to hit that tipping point. The people who use digital payments are very active. It's extremely integral to what they use."

Partners has about 1,100 active Apple Pay accounts and about 100 each on Samsung Pay and Android Pay. In any given month, Partners sees 11,000 to 12,000 Apple Pay transactions; for Samsung Pay, it sees about 1,500.

Parker noted almost 60% of Partners' members prefer to interact through a digital channel. "When we look at transactions – transfers, deposits and bill payments – we are seeing our top digital transactions coming through the mobile channel."

However, the branch and phone still dominate when it comes to overall interactions. "We still haven't made all of those core key processes as efficient, or sold it well enough," Terzian explained. "The types of transactions done on mobile will continue to evolve as consumer adoption and usage in mobile and technology evolve."

Future possibilities for Partners revolve around blockchain development, integrating digital assistance into its mobile banking capabilities, introducing technology for cardless ATMs, and allowing members to start an interaction online but set up a branch appointment to complete the transaction.

"Digital assistants are definitely something we're watching as well. Amazon sales [of Alexa] were something like nine times the sales of the previous years," Antonio Sanchez, senior product marketing manager at Kony, said. He also mentioned Kony's interest in social media integration. "Ideas include stuff like initiating an inquiry with customer service through a public forum like Twitter and then taking that to a private channel to resolve the issue."

Real-time payments and alerts present interesting mobile options.

"Corporate One recognizes the strategic shift faster payments present to credit unions to remain relevant and competitive financial services providers," Lee Butke, president/CEO for the $3.7 billion Columbus, Ohio-based Corporate One Federal Credit Union, said. "The goal is to create great member experiences using your mobile devices and help credit unions be successful in this faster payment world."

Almost 70% of the payments generated today are one-time (non-recurring) payments. "Consumers are seeking immediacy with their payment experience," Keith Riddle, Corporate One's EVP of enterprise solutions development, said. "It's the roundtrip experience that consumers are seeking that they don't necessarily receive within their credit union." This includes receiving alerts through SMS messaging before and after a payment.

In addition, members still require old fashioned human contact. "We don't see that going away any time soon. The challenge is how you continue to push that intimacy, that trust factor through a digital channel," Terzian said.

It's key for credit unions not to allow technology to replace member engagement and connectivity.

Ziff-Levine acknowledged the reality of new functionalities that mobile banking will have to present in order to keep pace with market expectations. Yet, any credit union without a good user experience is going to have a tough time attracting and keeping members. "It's also important for credit unions to not have shiny-object syndrome and chase the newest technology out there on the horizon," he warned.