Social media giants Facebook seems to leave no domain untouched. After acquiring the instant messaging service WhatsApp and photo-sharing app Instagram, it has now set its foot into the payments sector. Known as Facebook Pay, the feature allows you to send and receive money via Facebook and the Messenger app. But do note that this project of Facebook is completely different from its cryptocurrency project Libra. Let’s dive deep into it and see how to enable and furthermore use this feature.
What is Facebook Pay
Both Facebook, as well as Instagram, allows you to buy and sell products. The former even has a dedicated marketplace for the same. Currently, to purchase products from there, you had to do so via Credit/Debit Cards and other payment methods. But with the introduction of Facebook Pay, you can ditch all the other payment methods. It will allow you to directly make transactions on these apps. You won’t have to enter the payment details every time you do any transactions. Moreover, you could also send and receive money with your friends using the Messenger app.
Availability
Currently, Facebook Pay is only available in the US, with plans to expand it to a few other countries. Facebook further says that “We are rolling out Facebook Pay to a small set of countries and apps first, with the intention to bring this service to more people over time.”
Moreover, apart from Facebook and the Messenger App, the feature is also about to make its way over to Instagram and WhatsApp. With WhatsApp Pay already in development and many users in India already have this feature, it will be interesting to see how they both will co-exists together.
Transactions Possible via Facebook Pay
As already mentioned, Facebook Pay could be used for transactions on Facebook as well as the Instagram marketplace. Apart from that, you could also use it to send and receive money to your peers via the Messenger app. Not only that, payment for fundraisers, in-game purchases or booking event tickets would also be possible via Facebook Pay.
Enable the Facebook Pay Feature
If you are a citizen of the US, you could enable Facebook Pay by heading over to the Facebook app or website. Go to the Settings option and search for the Facebook Pay feature. Just add the desired payment method and you are set to go.
Rather than enabling this feature across all the apps, you also have the option of setting it up as a per-app basis. By doing so, Facebook Pay won’t get activated automatically across all the logged-in devices. That is, you will have to manually activate it on these apps. Likewise, you could also view your payment history, manage payment modes and customize other settings right from one single place (Settings > Facebook Pay).
Difference between Facebook Pay and WhatsApp Pay
Facebook Pay allows you to make transactions via Credit Cards, Debit Cards or PayPal. Whereas, WhatsApp Pay is based on Unified Payment Interface or UPI which allows for direct transactions via a UPI ID. While WhatsApp Pay is available to a handful of users in India, nothing concrete could be said about its stable rollout. This is because the RBI has told the Supreme Court that the WhatsApp Pay feature isn’t yet compliant with the data localization norms of the country. So it would be interesting to see how Facebook Pay makes its way over to India.
Security
This is where many people would think twice before using the Facebook Pay feature. With the company being notorious for data leaks, it would be quite difficult for many users to provide their financial details. Or even carry out monetary transactions via this feature. However, on its part, the company ensures that this initiative “securely store and encrypt your card and bank account numbers.” Moreover, you could also use a PIN or your device biometrics, such as touch or face ID recognition for security purposes.
What are your thoughts on this? Will you try out this new payment service from Facebook? Or the alternatives like Google Pay, Apple Pay, PhonePay or Paytm is all that is required. Do share your opinions down in the comments section.
Read next: How to Get Faster Data Speed on Android
Join The Discussion: