messenger paypal invoice
The new Facebook and PayPal feature allows users to create and send invoices on the Messenger app. PayPal

Users can now send invoices using PayPal on Facebook Messenger, the digital payment company announced on Tuesday.

The new feature comes after Facebook and PayPal expanded their partnership last month by allowing users to send person-to-person payments without leaving the app and by letting them send and request money through their accounts.

How To Send Invoices Using PayPal on Facebook Messenger

The invoices users create can display an image and price. The new feature means users don’t have to leave Messenger and open another app to create invoices, and allows the “entire transaction to occur within the conversation,” PayPal said.

To use the PayPal and Messenger features, Facebook users must have a PayPal account linked.

Here’s how to create invoices:

  1. Open the Messenger app

  2. Open the Extensions tray in Messenger.

  3. Select PayPal

  4. Create an invoice by completing the “What Are You Selling?” form. Users can type in information, including the item name, description, price and quantity.

  5. Press Continue, confirm the details and press Send.

  6. The invoice is sent in the conversation on the Messenger app and displays the image and the total amount due. The person who receives the invoice can then tap on the Pay With PayPal option on the invoice to pay with PayPal’s One Touch.

“Commerce is continuously expanding into new contexts,” PayPal said in the update’s announcement. “With the explosion of mobile apps, new commerce opportunities have been created and consumers are looking to make purchases in-context, without leaving those applications. PayPal is focused on helping merchants and consumers connect across a range of contexts including these new, emerging arenas.”

The new feature comes after Facebook and PayPal initially teamed up last year to allow more than 2.5 million U.S. customers to connect their accounts from both platforms and use PayPal to shop on the messaging app.

Apple Pay Vs. PayPal

The PayPal and Facebook partnership rivals other services, like Square Cash, Zelle and the upcoming Apple Pay features. Apple announced during the Worldwide Developers Conference in June that it was rolling out new Apple Pay features. The improvements include a person-to-person payment option and the Apple Pay Cash card.

The updates will allow users to make person-to-person payments using Apple Pay within iMessage. The Message app will detect when someone tells the user money is owed in a conversation and will then pull up Apple Pay in iMessage as a suggestion where it usually predicts the next word. The money received by the user will be transferred to their Apple Pay Cash card, which can be used to send money to others through their device, make purchases in stores or online and transfer funds to their bank account.

The new person-to-person payment is more competition for PayPal, since users won’t have to rely on its services, including Venmo, to send money to other iOS users.

The Apple Pay features were not released with the iOS 11 launch in September, but the recent iOS 11.2 beta suggests the improvements will launch with the official public update for iOS 11.2.