New Facebook Messenger feature lets you split the bill with friends

The Facebook and Facebook Messenger logos next to each other on a laptop screen and a smartphone screen.

(Image credit: viewimage/Shutterstock)

Even between the firmest friends, money can become a sore spot, and an upcoming "free and fast" feature for Facebook Messenger aims to brand interpersonal payments that bit easier to manage.

Meta has announced that a new feature called Split Payments will be coming to Facebook Messenger next week. The proper name pretty much says it all: it ties in with Facebook Messenger'south existing person-to-person payment feature, letting friends carve up a pecker with a articulate UI showing who has paid up, and who is yet to send money through.

Bills tin be created evenly or with unique fees for each group member — useful for charging less to the guy that rents the small room, or making the gluton who ordered the lobster pays their fair share — and the person setting up the request is free to include themselves in the sum or non.

"If you lot've struggled with dividing upward (and getting paid back for) group dinners, shared household expenses or fifty-fifty the monthly rent, it'south about to become easier," Meta's weblog mail explains.

How Split Payments in Facebook Messenger works

"To use Split Payments, click the "Go Started" push button in a group chat or the Payments Hub in Messenger. From there, yous can carve up a bill evenly or alter the contribution amount for each individual — with or without yourself included.

After entering a personalized message and confirming your Facebook Pay details, your asking will be sent and viewable in your group chat thread."

The image beneath gives y'all an idea of how the process works:

Facebook Messenger Split Payment feature demoed — (Epitome credit: Meta)

Meta describes this as a feature being tested, rather than something that's completely ready for primetime, and every bit such it'south starting with a United states-just release. Still, the timing does at least hateful that Christmas parties should be a bit easier to organize.

Split Payments for Facebook Messenger may be a little lightweight compared to the best budgeting apps, but that's ultimately function of its charm: an piece of cake way to track what you're owed built into an app that people are already comfortable with. Hopefully it'll make chasing personal debts that fleck easier, without letting resentments over missed payments fester into something more ugly.

Freelance contributor Alan has been writing well-nigh tech for over a decade, covering phones, drones and everything in between. Previously Deputy Editor of tech site Alphr, his words are institute all over the web and in the occasional magazine too. When not weighing up the pros and cons of the latest smartwatch, you'll probably discover him tackling his ever-growing games backlog. Or, more probable, playing Spelunky for the millionth fourth dimension.