Facebook may soon enable peer-to-peer money transfer via its Messenger app
While Apple is preparing to launch its Apple Pay mobile payment platform later this month, Facebook is apparently working on its own payment system for facilitating peer-to-peer money transfer via its standalone messaging app, Facebook Messenger.
As reported by TechCrunch:
Facebook Messenger is all set up to allow friends to send each other money. All Facebook has to do is turn on the feature, according to screenshots and video taken using iOS app exploration developer tool Cycript by Stanford computer science student Andrew Aude.
A likely competitor to PayPal, Venmo, and Square Cash, Messenger’s mobile payment feature allows users to send money to one another in pretty much the same way as photos are sent with messages. The PIN-protected option works with debit cards added through Messenger or the Facebook site itself.
Expected to be enabled initially in the U.S. in the coming months, Messenger’s payment system comes as no surprise considering that former PayPal president David Marcus now heads Facebook’s Messenger team.
According to a recent report, Marcus left PayPal for Facebook last July over disagreements concerning the former company’s supposed participation in Apple Pay. He wanted in on the deal, but PayPal CEO John Donahue chose to side with Samsung on the mobile payment system integrated into the Touch ID-like Galaxy S5 fingerprint scanner. None too pleased with this move, Apple then excluded PayPal from Apple Pay altogether.
See also: Facebook updates Paper for iOS 8, promises improvements for its main app, Facebook updates Slingshot with significant change to app’s unique feature, and After Messenger backlash, Facebook responds through its main iPhone app.
