Introducing a way to send payment through apps have become the norm. Coping up with the trend Facebook Messenger on desktop and Android devices will now support group payments.
The feature is already being rolled out to users in the United States and is expected to soon be introduced in other regions. Facebook has been in the game for a very long time and the company rolled out the ability to send payments from one person to another in 2015. The feature was first rolled out through Facebook Messenger and there are speculations that claim WhatsApp will soon have the same feature making payments easier.
With the latest update, the Messenger app on both desktop and Android platforms can be used to send payments to entire group. Users can also receive money from a group that adds a whole new level of convenience. While the feature might sound confusing at start, it is a pretty straight forward affair. When in a group, you can send or receive money. There is an option to choose whether to send money to all members in a group or to individuals. While the feature is already rolled out in the United States, Facebook has not made any statement on introducing it in other countries.
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Places like Brazil, India and many other South East Asian countries have millions of users on the Facebook platform. However, when it comes to texting and group conversations the audience in these regions primarily use WhatsApp as their preferred choice of messenger. As the company owns the app as well, they may focus on introducing the payment and group payment features on WhatsApp first rather than the Facebook Messenger. It does make a lot of sense from a business perspective because people may not use Messenger at all but rather WhatsApp.
In a typical scenario, sending and receiving payments in a group may work when multiple people chip in money to buy a gift for a celebration. It may also work when one has to pay at a restaurant while others prefer to send the money later in a group conversation. Such events will be much easier and it is also expected that both Facebook Messenger and WhatsApp will not allow large transactions as they are not supposed to be a replacement for banking requirements. Instead, they will be limited to smaller sums of money for quick transactions between friends, family and office colleagues.
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An icon will show who paid to avoid confusion and you can request payment by creating a group message. The features are plenty and should come in handy.