The app is launching a test of “Split Payments,” a feature that allows you to divide and pay for joint expenses.
Although Facebook Messenger’s entry into personal finance isn’t new, I’ve never quite managed to think about it as a payments platform. It’s more an inbox that aunts, uncles, and friends from high school blow up with messages when I haven’t posted on Facebook in a while. But it’s now becoming more and more clear that Messenger will gladly handle my money if I let it.
The Facebook Messenger team provided a sneak peek of its new “Split Payments” feature in a news announcement on Friday. It’s basically a way to organize and pay joint expenses you have with friends, roommates, coworkers, or anyone you’re splitting bills with. Similar to apps like Splitwise, Split Payments allows you to create a shared expense, split the bill evenly, or modify the contribution that corresponds to each person. You also have the option to include or exclude yourself from the expense.
Once all the information is in the app, you can send out a request to the people who need to pay you in Messenger, receive the payment through Facebook Pay (the company’s version of Venmo), and transfer it to your bank account.
“If you’ve struggled with dividing up (and getting paid back for) group dinners, shared household expenses or even the monthly rent, it’s about to get easier,” the Facebook Messenger team said in the news announcement.
