Facebook Messenger has introduced a new feature where it lets you send money to your friends – not kidding. The company’s new payment feature was introduced to enhance the features of the messenger, letting Facebook users easily transfer money with their debit cards.
The process of sending money to friends and receiving them is fairly simple. Users will first need to tap on the ‘$’ icon and then enter the amount of money to be sent. Once that’s done, just tap on Pay at the top right and key in your debit card to transfer the money. To receive it, users will only need to open up the conversation and tap on Add Card to add a debit card to accept the amount transferred. It takes one to three business days if the transaction is done between two different banks – similar to interbank funds transfer.
In terms of security, Facebook is integrating the secure payment system it uses for daily game and advertisement transactions, which incorporates encryption as well as layers of software and hardware protection. On Android, users can set a pin to enhance the security everytime they send money. On iOS, Touch ID can be used to confirm money transactions on Facebook.
The new feature is free and it will be rolling out to Facebook users in the United States over the coming months. It will be available on all three platforms – desktop, iOS and Android. For now, it is unclear whether the feature will make its way into Malaysian smartphones, but let’s just be patient and not rule out the possibility.
[Source: Facebook Newsroom via TechCrunch]
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