Now You Can Send Money Through Facebook Messenger!

Couple of months back, ICICI Bank let its users share money with their friends via Twitter. The only condition being your friend should be on Twitter, too. Facebook announced a similar money-transferring feature for the Facebook messenger which is apparently available only in US but plans to expand internationally, soon. This move can be seen as a direct take on other such services like the Venmo, PayPal and Snapchat which uses Square Cash.

If you are initiating the transaction for the first time, you can send money by tapping the new “$” icon in the messenger. It will be available next to the buttons which let you send photos, stickers or the like. Then enter the amount you are going to send and hit “pay”. You will then be required to add a Visa or a MasterCard Debit Card which is issued by a US bank to your account. Once you add your card number, you can create a pin code which will act like a pass code and will be required every time you want to send money. The friend will then receive the money in 1-3 business days.

For Apple devices that have Touch ID, one can enable it instead or along with and add another layer of authentication for security. For users who are concerned about their security, Facebook stated in their blog post that it handles more than a million payments transactions on its site everyday for advertisers and from all the in-app purchases which happen via game players. Its payments systems are stored separately from other parts of the Facebook network. It also receives additional monitoring and control to ensure there are no false purchases.

The Facebook messenger feature is rolling out for free and will work with debit cards and is available on Android & iOS as well as the Web. It is not clear as to how will Facebook generate revenues from the money transfers, but the feature could only be a glimpse of a bigger picture to come.