Facebook Messenger expands its direct payment feature, rolls out in New York City

Posted May 28, 20159 yr

People who can use the direct payment features in the Facebook Messenger app now have some new options to check out.

In March, Facebook began its slow rollout of its new direct payment features inside its Messenger app. Today, it is adding some more options to those features, along with expanding its reach to include more people. Messenger added ways for some users to either send or receive money directly from the app by adding their Visa or MasterCard debit card information. Here's what's been added as part of today's update:

Now in your Messenger conversations, dollar amounts are automatically hyperlinked and when tapped, will start a payment for that amount to the person you're messaging. The sender can then confirm the payment before sending. This is similar to how addresses, phone numbers, or website URLs are automatically hyperlinked in Messenger.

If people are engaged in a group conversation, they can now pay friends individually within the group on desktop without having to leave the group conversation. People in the group conversation will be able to see who paid whom and for how much.

The payments feature in Messenger is now available for users in the New York City metropolitan area and it will continue to roll out to other parts of the US in the coming weeks and months.