The feature, which allows friends to send and receive money using Facebook’s messaging app on iOS and Android as well as on the desktop, was previously only available in a few cities in the US, including Seattle, Portland and Austin.
To send someone money over Facebook Messenger, users have to open a conversation and tap the dollar symbol. Then they can link their debit card and decide how much to send. Facebook says it only has access to user’s money for a few seconds while it is transferred between banks. Friends cannot accept a payment until he or she links up his or her bank account.
Payments were originally limited to one-on-one conversations, but now users can send money to a specific friend from inside a group chat. Each payment also shows up as a bubble in one’s Messenger conversation. Tapping on it will send the money.
In March 2015, Facebook unveiled its intentions to delve further into the payments business, with a move that could potentially upend popular payments apps like PayPal or Venmo. The latter is a social payments app that uses Facebook to help users find and pay their friends.
By including payments in Messenger, Facebook is now pitting itself against not only other dedicated payments apps, but also the Square Cash-powered Snapcash feature that Snapchat launched in November 2014.
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