While digital payment systems in-store still aren’t as popular as your credit cards and cash, the more innovations there are in the industry, the more people will be encouraged to use one or two of them. You already have your Android Pay and Samsung Pay as mobile payment gateways, but soon, we might even get something like Facebook Pay. Someone has spotted on their Messenger app code a new feature that might allow us to make these in-store purchases soon.
Messenger already has a money-sending feature (at least in some regions) where you can send and receive money directly from the app. But they are reportedly taking it one step further as the code for the next update of the app includes a feature where you can save your debit or credit cards on the app then use it to pay for goods that you’ll be buying inside a store. This will bypass a POS terminal which may be expensive for some small business owners and has also been a target for hackers lately.
The code feature supposedly says that you can “pay directly in Messenger when you pick up the item” and “pay in person”. When this will be implemented, it will probably involve opening a direct message conversation and that will eventually allow these stores and/or brands to send ads to people, which is what has been reported previously. But this will only happen when the user is the one who initiates the conversation. And paying using your Messenger app is probably considered starting a dialogue.
Another thing that has been spotted in the Messenger app is a “secret conversations” feature. This can either be encrypted (the buzz word of the moment) conversations or the ability to hide certain message exchanges on your device. When the official update comes along, let’s see if both are still there.
VIA: SlashGear
