PayPal's Venmo Now Lets You Pay Inside Apps

Apple was rumored to enter into the peer-to-peer payment market, potentially taking a bite out of PayPal's pie. But now PayPal is, though indirectly, taking a bite from Apple first. Venmo, the mobile payment system that PayPal now owns, has a new "Pay with Venmo" program. What it does is allow both consumers and businesses to connect to Venmo to pay for products and services inside mobile apps. In short, pretty much what Apple Pay, and Android Pay as well, does for some in-app purchases.

Pay with Venmo works pretty much the same way as Apple's and Google's equivalent features. When it comes time to make a payment inside an app that supports it, Venmo will appear as a payment option in addition to credit card payment, or Apple Pay in some cases. Simply tap it and the app will connect with the Venmo app also installed on the same mobile device to authenticate the user. And that's it. Venmo promises that no payment details are shared.

One might wonder what benefit there is to using Pay with Venmo over, say, Apple Pay. Venmo does highlight a few key differences. For one, Venmo allows users to split up payment among other Venmo users, either on the spot or later. And perhaps more importantly, Venmo is actually cross-platform, available both on iOS as well as Android. On the other hand, Apple Pay does have the advantage of incorporating Touch ID for an even more secure transaction.

Despite its cross-platform availability, Pay with Venmo is, so far, available only for iOS and in very limited participating users. The number of merchants supporting it is also extremely limited, with GameTime and Munchery being the only ones listed so far. PayPal's Braintree, however, powers Venmo so it could be just a matter of time before the number grows.

SOURCE: Venmo