Online (and cashless) payments systems are the talk of the tech-town these days. And while Apple and others took on to cashless payment via special payment tech, Facebook leveraged its experience from its ads payment processing to provide its users with a newly introduced, Friend-to-Friend money transfer feature via Messenger.
The new payment method, currently available only in the U.S., is in fact pretty easy to use. To send money to a Facebook friend, Start a message with a friend, Tap the $ icon and enter the amount you want to send, Tap Pay in the top right and add your debit card to send money. The money is sent almost instantaneously, with al depending on the receiver as to when he/she en-cashes the same.
To receive money, simply open up a conversation with your friend who sent you money, add your debit card details to accept money, and you’re good to go. Those debit card details are automatically saved after you receive paymnets for the first time.
The first time you send or receive money in Messenger, you’ll need to add a Visa or MasterCard debit card issued by a US bank to your account. Once you add a debit card, you can create a PIN to provide additional security the next time you send money. On iOS devices you can also enable Touch ID. As always, you can add another layer of authentication to your account at any time.
Facebook has also laid special stress on security, and why not. After all, upon introduction, the service is sure be a instant hit and would thus be processing Millions in transactions.
However, considering how Facebook has had a pretty decent run when it comes to processing payments for game players and advertisers since 2007, Security during friend-to-friend transactions shouldn’t be a worry.
The new payments feature is rolling out in the coming months in the US across Android, iOS, and desktop.
