Facebook brings payments to Messenger app

Facebook has announced that it launches a new payment service for American users of its Messenger app. They will be able to send money to their friends just as easily as they send a snapshot or text.

The service will be for free and users will have to provide information for their MasterCard or Visa debit card accounts. The feature can be activated by tapping a dollar sign while chatting with a friend in Facebook's Messenger app. 

With nearly 500 million people using Messenger, the new feature makes Facebook an instantaneous competitor to other peer-to-peer payments companies like Venmo, Square and Snapchat.

"The focus is not about building a payments business that is accepted everywhere," Facebook product manager Steve Davis says. "It's really about making Messenger more useful."

The company claims that the app is secure enough for making money transfers:

"We use layers of software and hardware protection that meet the highest industry standards," Facebook said in a blog post. "These payment systems are kept in a secured environment that is separate from other parts of the Facebook network and that receives additional monitoring and control. A team of anti-fraud specialists monitor for suspicious purchase activity to help keep accounts safe."

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