The recently launched payment service Facebook Pay is designed to enable social network users and WhatsApp and Instagram users to securely make payments through the services. To Release Facebook Pay is only usable in the USA. The WhatsApp and Instagram integration has also not yet been activated and, like other countries, will only follow later. In addition, other developers should also be able to integrate the new payment service into their apps and websites.
Facebook Pay users can individually define in their settings in which apps the payment service should be available. By default, only Facebook integration is enabled; if users want to use Facebook Pay with other services, they must first activate them. Alternatively, Facebook Pay can also be activated for all services. Payments are secured by PIN, face scan or fingerprint. According to Facebook, the recipients of payments do not receive the account data. Moreover, according to Facebook, the financial data should be stored independently of the profile data and not be used for personal advertising.
The new payment service should not be confused with the crypto currency Libra also announced by Facebook, but uses Paypal as well as credit and debit cards to process payment transactions. The payment processes are administered by Stripe, which also handles payments. A dedicated live chat service is available for customer service purposes. Similar to Paypal, the account transactions are displayed in a list that shows users when they transferred what amount to whom and when. In addition, users can specify in the web interface which deposited payment method is to be used.
In addition, Facebook Pay is to be integrated into the donation function of the social network, through which users have been able to collect money for charitable organisations for several years. Otherwise, the new payment service will mainly serve to send small amounts between private individuals, for example when friends have borrowed money from each other.
So far, Facebook has only announced that the service will be rolled out “gradually” for other markets. It is therefore not yet known when the German release is due.
