Facebook has introduced a payments update to its Messenger platform that will allow US businesses who are not integrated with Stripe or PayPal to process payments within both messages and webview using tokenization technology. The feature is currently being rolled out in a closed beta as part of Messenger v1.3.

“When a user makes a payment, Facebook will send the business single-use, tokenized credentials, which will allow them to integrate with their preferred payment provider,” Facebook says. “It also allows developers who manage multiple bots to integrate payments without requiring additional setup for each bot that they manage.

“Tokenized payments do not require any extra account linking on a page level. We will send an encrypted tokenized card to your webhook once a user makes a payment. You can then charge the card with the payment provider you prefer.”

Scale payment integrations

“You will need to set your public key through thread setting for using tokenized payments,” the company adds. “This is a good way to scale payment integrations for an app that manages multiple pages.

“We are also introducing the ability for businesses and developers to test their payment integration before submitting an application for the beta program. This enables businesses who have completed the payments integration to ensure proper setup of their payments experience prior to launch.”

Facebook updated its Messenger chatbot platform to enable bots to accept payments without having to send shoppers to external sites for completion of the checkout process in September 2016.

Facebook Bots were unveiled in April 2016 to bring a range of new functions to Messenger. American Express was an early adopter of the technology, allowing its customers to get real-time notifications of purchases through the app in June.

A complete guide to tokenized payments through the social media platform is available here.

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