Facebook introduces group payments feature to messenger app

Facebook has rolled out group payments feature within its Messenger app, allowing users to pay either everyone in the group or individual members.

According to a report in Tech Crunch on Tuesday, users can also request payments from the group right within their chat.

Users can enter the amount they want to request from each person or the total amount to be divided evenly by the group members. They can also mention in a note about what the money is for.

"A message will appear in the group chat to show who has paid. Those details are available by viewing the request details in full-screen, too," the report noted.

This is a free service and does not require a password. Available on Android and desktop as of now, the group payments is live in the US since Tuesday.

"Payments is an area of Facebook's business that hasn't received as much focus over the years, despite the social network's potential to collect and store payment data for its sizable user base," the report stated.

Facebook had introduced person-to-person payments within Messenger in early 2015. Now the decision to expand the feature to group payments coincides the time when Facebook is rumoured to be preparing the launch of a digital payments business in India within its other messaging app, WhatsApp.