Have you ever been in a situation where someone on Facebook has asked you for a little bit of cash to get out of a jam? Probably not, but you might soon be getting a lot more messages for more than just a casual catch-up.

According to TechCrunch, Facebook has already built in a feature into its native messaging application which will allow you to send money to your friends. The feature isn’t active yet – it was discovered in the Facebook Messenger code by computer science major Andrew Aude from Stanford University. Aude used iOS app exploration developer tool Cycript to make his discovery.

@Facebook Messenger has P2P payments coming. @SquareCash style. pic.twitter.com/3NuXuuaMMC

— Andrew Aude (@andyplace2) October 4, 2014

Since the feature is ready and set up to go, TechCrunch says that all that Facebook needs to do, is flip the switch.

“Messenger’s payment option lets users send money in a message similar to how they can send a photo. Users can add a debit card in Messenger, or use one they already have on file with Facebook. An in-app pincode also exists for added security around payments,” the publication wrote.

And thinking about it, it’s actually not that surprising of a move – considering that David Marcus (who is now the head of Messenger at Facebook) was once the president of payment services company PayPal.

If Facebook users also paid close attention to CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s speech when the company’s second quarter earnings call was made, he did elude to a service that will allow for payment but didn’t divulge further information.

“…over time there will be some overlap between [Messenger] and payments. […] The payments piece will be a part of what will help drive the overall success and help people share with each other and interact with businesses.”

To no surprise, Facebook hasn’t commented on when the payment service will be made available to everyone, or if it will go into a beta process first.

[Source – TechCrunch, Image – CC by 2.0/Marco Paköeningrat]