Facebook to Launch Payment Shortcut in Messenger

Facebook is rolling out a series of shortcuts for its chat platform Messenger, including one that makes it easier for users to send and receive money.

“We’re excited today to introduce shortcuts on Messenger, a new command system to help supercharge your messaging efficiency and add a little extra fun to your experience,” the company said on its website Tuesday (March 29).

“Whether you want to notify everyone in a chat of an important announcement, pay a friend back for lunch or express your frustration with a timely “(╯°□°）╯︵ ┻━┻”, Messenger’s new shortcuts will get you there in the shortest number of keystrokes,” Facebook wrote.

The /pay feature, set to roll out “soon,” on Messenger for iOS and Android, comes on the heels of Facebook Messenger’s recently announced Split Payments service.

This latest feature lets people transfer money with no fees just by typing /pay, “perfect for quickly paying a friend for dinner or getting paid back for a ride.”

See also: Facebook Unveils Split Payments For Messenger

In an interview with PYMNTS’ last year, Facebook Consumer Product Management Head Meron Colbeci spoke of the company’s goal to expand to each aspect of Facebook experience, letting users “close the loop” without needing to exit Facebook.

“We’re trying to go where our users want us to go,” Colbeci said. “So, when someone is talking about dinner last night, they can say, ‘Hey, do you mind paying me back?’ We have a way to enable that transaction right there and then.”

Other new shortcuts include @everyone, which lets users notify everyone in a group chat, ensuring no one is left out, and @silent, which “removes the anxiety of interrupting someone with a non-urgent pop-up notification or disturbing them during their off hours.”

Both these features are available now, Facebook said. Still to come on iOS are the /gif shortcut, which lets people express themselves using GIFs, and /shrug and /tableflip (¯\_(ツ)_/¯ and ╯°□°）╯︵ ┻━┻), which lets users communicate through emojis.

“Instead of struggling to type each emoticon (or having to find it online to copy and paste), simply type in /shrug or /tableflip to add your chosen emoticons to your message,” the Facebook announcement said.