There's something new that you'll soon be able to send over Snapchat: money. Snapchat is today launching a service called Snapcash, which lets you quickly send money to a friend and have it deposited into their bank account. Once you've entered your debit card into Snapchat, you'll be able to start sending a friend money through the normal messaging screen, just by entering in the amount you want to send and beginning it with a dollar sign. For now, the service is only available in the US for users age 18 and over. It's likely that an app update will be required to start using Snapcash, but no update is available yet on either iOS or Android.
Square will handle card numbers and processing
Snapchat created Snapcash in partnership with Square, which will handle storing card numbers and processing payments. That's good news for a lot of reasons, including how user-friendly Square tends to be and the fact that it means Snapchat won't be handling your sensitive information. Snapchat has by no means proven itself to be a beacon of security, and having Square on board may make people a lot more comfortable about providing their information. Square has even been operating a very similar service of its own already, which works over email.
Snapchat is now the latest in a long string of companies that have been trying to make it easy for friends to send money to one another. Some of these apps and services have been well-made, but setting up a new app and later explaining to each friend what you're doing is ultimately a lot harder than digging through your wallet for cash. While Snapchat may have a tough time convincing people to enter their debit info, it still has a huge step up on other quick payments apps: people are already using it, and they understand that Snapchat is used for sending things to friends.
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