Facebook Messenger adds PayPal as P2P payment option

As of Friday, Facebook Messenger users can make peer-to-peer payments with PayPal as a funding source, the social media company announced. The new functionality currently available to iOS users in the US and will come to Android users soon, Facebook said.

Financial services, including services from PayPal, already have a large presence on Facebook Messenger. Facebook launched payments on Messenger in 2015. In April of this year, the company enhanced the platform's peer-to-peer payments capabilities, enabling users in the app to send or receive money between groups of people. Facebook also rolled out M, a limited version of its AI assistant that offers help with a handful of specific tasks, including paying or requesting money.

Since 2016, Messenger users have had PayPal as a payment option when making purchases o the platform via third-party chatbots.

Friday's announcement comes a day after PayPal posted strong third quarter financial results, processing $114 billion in total payment volume in the quarter. P2P payments volume increased 47 percent to $24 billion, and represented approximately 21 percent of total payment volume.

Meanwhile, PayPal also recently rolled out a P2P payment integration with the Skype app.

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