Hacker News Reader

HNHacker News

Top New Best Ask Show Jobs

Comment by umeshunni | Hacker News Reader

Full thread

umeshunni·

Hasn't this existed for a while?

e.g. 2016 article: https://www.cnet.com/how-to/use-facebook-messenger-to-send-a...

Is this a rebrand?

View on HN

Yeah, making payments (via Messenger) has been around for a very long time (March 2015 is the earliest I've known about it).

This does appear to be a type of rebranding, but more importantly a push for Facebook to begin integration with other apps and possible third-parties.

Maybe this is their effort to actually tell people about the service so they actually use it.

Your comment jogged a vague memory I had about this feature of FB Messenger, but it's not something your average person knows about. Also, I removed FB Messenger from my phone several years ago for being an unrepentant battery drainer.

I have FB Payments transactions between friends from August 2015. Looks like over 275 transactions total. Of every money transfer service, its the fastest bar none. It was shockingly good at what it did, given that it was an interface between legacy banks, I hope it stays as high quality.

> Of every money transfer service, its the fastest bar none

How is it faster than other instant transfer services, like Zelle or Venmo?

If I stand in front of an ATM, and someone sends me money, I can take it out seconds later. Its a near instantaneous transfer. Zelle is about as fast, but facebook has been around longer, and has been instant since it launched, long before Venmo added it (and charges for it.) Zelle is also only instant within the Zelle network. Then again maybe every bank ive ever used with FB is within the FB network of instant banks?

Seems like it could be the expansion of the service from Messenger to Instagram and WhatsApp too that is the "launch".

Reply on news.ycombinator.com