Instagram Adds In-App Payments Feature
A couple of days after Facebook’s annual developer’s conference, Instagram has now added a new feature to its app. Without making any big announcement, the photo-sharing platform added an in-app payments feature for a few accounts. The feature lets users add a credit or debit card and a pin. After the initial setup, users can make purchases from within Instagram.
Currently, users are able to book appointments at restaurants, spas through a Resy, a third-party dinner reservation app. With the new feature, users will be able to book services from a limited number of businesses on the platform. In March 2017, the company announced its plans to give business profiles the option to let users book their services. At the time, the company said it that it would roll out the feature in late-2017, however, that didn’t happen.
In-app payment method has become an important feature for Facebook-owned properties. WhatsApp recently introduced the feature and is currently in testing phase. WhatsApp even introduced verified accounts for businesses in order to gain traction from owners and customers of small to mid-level businesses.
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The photo-sharing app has a lot of influencers who promote all kinds of products. If Instagram does find the feature useful and makes it available to all its userbase, it can go a long way to help businesses that run on Instagram. In India and many other places, there are small businesses like football jersey sellers, handmade jewellery sellers etc which operate through Instagram. These home-run businesses usually leave a WhatsApp number to place an order. Now, with the new feature, users can simply select what they want and make a payment from within the app.
The feature, as of now, is only available to a few users in the US and UK. With time, we expect Instagram to roll out this feature to other countries as well.
