Facebook Messenger users can now do peer-to-peer payments within the App using their PayPal accounts. This facility is currently available only for PayPal users in the United States but will soon be available in other locations as well. This announcement came today after the two companies teamed up to integrate PayPal payment services with the Messenger’s platform. This new announcement expands the partnership between the two companies into peer-to-peer payments.This also includes the first customer service bot of PayPal that can handle customer queries online and requests for any assistance.
Facebook Messenger initially introduced the payment service option inside the App in 2015 which allows users to transfer money to their friends using a debit or credit card. But for users who are not comfortable using a debit card or credit card online and prefer PayPal payments, Facebook has introduced this new feature which allows you to pay your friends using your PayPal account. The feature is currently available on iOS devices and will soon be available on Android.
PayPal and Facebook announced a strategic partnership last year which allowed U.S customers to shop online using Facebook Messenger chat bots and make transactions inside the App using PayPal. Also, users living in the US can link their PayPal account with Facebook Messenger to receive notifications about their online transactions and get receipts for payments made inside the App. More than 2.5 Million Messenger users have linked their accounts with PayPal and this number is expected to rise further after today’s news.
PayPal users can now pay their friends inside the Facebook Messenger App instantly from their available PayPal balance after linking their account. Apart from making Payments, PayPal users can also get access to the customer service chat bot inside the Facebook Messenger which allows them to reset passwords, get help regarding payment issues inside the App and also handle account inquiries. This automated system is designed based on the natural language processing capabilities of the Facebook Messenger platform to interpret what people are saying through chat.
This feature makes it more easier and quicker for users to send money using PayPal than the native PayPal application. A similar feature is already available through Apple’s iMessage platform that can be launched through Siri. This feature is especially helpful for users in the Facebook’s buy-and-sell-groups and local group sales which has currently more than 450 million monthly visitors based on the latest Facebook data. PayPal COO Bill Ready stated that a similar peer-to-peer payment option will soon be available in other messaging apps. Though this feature is currently available only in the United States, PayPal plans to roll out this feature soon to the global markets.