Instagram has quietly launched a new payment feature that's native to the social network, and expressly targeted at eCommerce, just a few days after the end of Facebook's annual developer conference F8 2018.
The in-app payments feature is already live on the photo-sharing app, and it's not enabled for peer to peer payments; as of now the availability is for a subset of people in the US in the beta stage.
And it is open for making bookings in businesses like eateries and spars, while a user is required to register their credit or debit card details and a security PIN.
Unlike WhatsApp Payments, it is only for eCommerce purposes and not for peer to peer payments, and on a pictures user could press the 'Shop Now' button and be redirected to the website, albeit the user does not have to go out of the app which ensures that users spend more time on Instagram.
Apart from retaining users on the platform, Instagram will also help in selling products and services, thereby serving as an eCommerce platform as well.
For now, only WhatsApp in all Facebook owned platforms has peer-to-peer payments capabilities.
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