San Francisco, Oct 21 (IANS): Online payment gateway PayPal has allowed American people to send and request money via Facebook Messenger using PayPal accounts.

PayPal is the leader in peer-to-peer (P2P) payments with $24 billion in P2P volume during the third quarter of 2017 alone (up 47 per cent year-over-year).

The ability to send and request money in Messenger gives people more choice and more convenient ways to get things done in different contexts.

"Whether it's splitting a bill for a cab ride or a night out, paying for your share of the rent, or making sure you get paid back for mom's birthday present, PayPal makes exchanging money between friends and family simple," the company said in a statement late Friday.

Last year, PayPal partnered with Facebook Messenger, allowing more than 2.5 million US customers to connect their accounts, use PayPal to shop on Messenger and enable Messenger as a means of communication for PayPal users.

When composing a message in Messenger with one person, or even a group, people can tap on the blue plus icon, and then select the green payments button to quickly send or request money.

People can then choose PayPal as their funding source when making a P2P payment with their Messenger contacts.

"In addition to enabling P2P payments with PayPal in Messenger, we are also introducing our first-ever PayPal customer service bot for Messenger, so PayPal customers can seamlessly receive payment and account support directly in the app," said Bill Ready, Chief Operating Officer, PayPal.