Snapchat Introduces Payments Feature

Earlier this week, Snapchat unveiled "Snapcash," a new feature in partnership with Square, that will enable users to send and receive money through the app. For all those who are concerned with the recent security breaches on Snapchat, the company has made it clear that all banking information will be stored on the Square service, and not on their own platform.

To send money, a Snapchat user simply enters text with a dollar amount, such as "here's $10 for the movie ticket." The app will recognize the "$10" text and a payments button will appear allowing you to instantly transfer the money, provided you are signed up for the Snapcash service.

At the current time, Snapcash is only available to those 18 and older, and those using Visa and MasterCard debit cards. Pending its initial success, Snapcash will likely be rolled out on a broader scale. While this has the potential to challenge current industry leaders, including Venmo and Paypal, representatives for Snapchat claim that this is not intended to enter into a new business model, but rather to simply expand upon the offerings of their app in a way that best fits the needs of its users.

This partnership is incredibly beneficial to both parties. For Snapchat, this is the first time they are opening their app to other partners (with the exception of Snapchat Stories). In addition, Square has not partnered with other apps to date, and this launch is the perfect test to understand the potential of Square Cash in the future.

Snapcash is available as part of the Android update that was rolled out on Monday, November 17, with an iOS version to come. Read more about the Snapchat and Square partnership in the full article here, and watch the YouTube video that was created to announce the launch below: