Skype has partnered up with PayPal to allow users to send and receive money in the middle of a conversation, with full integration between the Skype app and the PayPal service. Sending some money from within a Skype conversation is as easy as swiping left, tapping on the PayPal applet, entering the amount you want to send, then confirming the transaction, along with any applicable fees. You’ll see a cash cannon firing toward your intended recipient, and if all goes well, you’ll get a notification that they received the money. There are a few caveats, of course; first off, you obviously have to have a PayPal account, as does your intended recipient, and that account must be linked to Skype. Also, the feature is currently only working in 22 countries, though any required currency exchanging can be handled automatically by PayPal after you confirm the transaction.
Receiving money is just as easy and happens within a Skype conversation. Though the sender will need to be running the latest version of the Skype app, the recipient can be running any relatively recent build of the mobile app. If the sender or recipient do not have a PayPal account or do not have it linked to Skype, they will be prompted to rectify this the first time they use the feature. The new functionality also works across platforms, so iOS and Android users can send and receive money just as easily as users on the same platform. The feature was not announced for the Windows Phone or BlackBerry versions of Skype, and likely won’t be coming to those.
PayPal is integrating with an increasingly large swath of chat services and other online entities to allow users to easily send and receive money. Integration with services like Slack, iMessage, and Outlook have made PayPal far more ubiquitous recently, though the platform was already quite popular as one of the easiest payment options for online shopping giants Amazon and eBay. PayPal’s increasing popularity, compatibility with a wide range of banks, and ease of use have essentially turned it into the premier online payment option of the digital age, though on-device options like Android Pay and Samsung Pay are catching up by increasing their own compatibility and integrating with third-party services and apps much like PayPal does. The race for mobile and online payment dominance is certainly on, but PayPal has a fairly large head start.