Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB) Chief Mark Zuckerberg’s promise to provide an integrated payment system with its Messenger app might be much closer to reality than previously thought. A recent code investigation revealed that, very soon, Facebook users will be able to transfer money to their friends by attaching the amount to a message just like they would attach a photo and send it through their mobile using the Facebook Messenger app.
It is still unclear when this new functionality will be released to the public. Though there is no official confirmation from Facebook yet, experts opined that the code for the functionality is in place and all Facebook had to do now was to make it available for its users.
Facebook Inc Messenger payment internal working similar to that of Square Cash
The Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB) code also had references to eBay Inc (NASDAQ:EBAY)’s PayPal although PayPal was not present in the list of payment options. The money transfer process is speculated to be similar to that followed by Square Cash which debits the amount from the sender’s account and credits it to the receiver’s bank account.
Though sending payment attachments on a one on one basis is possible, sending payments to a group is not supported. However, this group payment functionality is expected to be available in the long term.
New addition makes Facebook Inc Messenger superior over existing chat apps
Experts say the Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB) Messenger’s payment feature has huge potential. The app’s ability to combine the social with the financial gives it an edge over the plethora of free messenger apps available in the market such as Google Inc (NASDAQ:GOOGL) Hangouts, Google Inc (NASDAQ:GOOGL) WeChat and Rakuten Inc’s Viber.
People chat with their friends regularly but might they not have to transfer money to them on a daily basis. Hence, appending payment functionality to a chat service means that users can now install one app lesser. Making payments through Messenger will also come in handy if and when Facebook succeeds in adding a feature to buy items directly from its news feed.
