How to Send Money on Snapchat
(Ilustration by Daniel Bean/Yahoo Tech)
Snapchat recently brought new meaning to the phrase “money shot.”
Earlier this week, the L.A.-based company announced that you could now send money to anyone on your contact list through its infamous app. Though the feature, named Snapcash, is slightly weird for a product that has made its name on disappearing content, it could be a helpful time-saver for power users.
Heck, it could even be a path to monetizing your selfies, if you so desire. Get paid for that duckface!
Here’s how you do it:
Setting Up Snapcash
Open the app and tap the symbol at the bottom left corner of the screen (it should either be a pink number or an empty square).
You’ll arrive at your list of recent snaps. Use your will power to not get distracted by them, and tap the mechanical symbol in the upper right-hand corner of the screen.
Scroll down in settings and tap Snapcash.
A Terms of Service blurb will pop up. You should know that Snapchat is partnering with the payments startup Square to make these digital money transfers possible. As a result, when you enter in your financial information, you’re giving it to two companies: Snapchat and Square. Oh, and you also have to be 18, though I don’t think Snapchat does anything to verify that.
You can add a debit or credit card by filling out the usual stuff. I’ll admit that as I was entering my debit card information, I got nervous. Snapchat doesn’t have the best track record when it comes to security/keeping promises of privacy. That being said, Square’s security features seem more robust. In fact, Square released a statement alongside the announcement of Snapcash boasting of its security features, explaining that “all payment information is passed through Square, encrypted and submitted to our servers securely, regardless of whether you’re using a public or private WiFi connection or a data service on your phone.”
That’s reassuring. Still, to safeguard against my own loose snapping, I also enabled a safeguard that asks me to enter my card’s CVV, each time I want to send someone cash money.
Sending Snapcash
When you want to send money, simply head to your list of contacts and find the lucky recipient. Swipe right on her name to start a chat.
After that, all you need to do is enter a dollar sign and then the amount you want to pay. Immediately the yellow circle on the right will turn green. The first time it’ll say “Tap to send cash!”
A bubble will pop up warning you that you are sending money over an app that is commonly known to be used for sexts.
Then, if you’ve enabled the CVV security feature, that’ll appear as well.
When you’re all through with that stuff, feel free to attach a selfie to your cash payment.
Your recipient will get a snap that looks like this:
And, of course, they have to enter in their financial information before they can cash it out. Once they’ve done that, your message history will confirm it’s been transferred like so:
(Please excuse all of our excessive screenshots.)
That’s the whole thing! Not as easy as Snapchat’s blog post made it sound, but I’m sure every teen you know has already transferred large sums of money with this tool. No go on, get that money, before this feature disappears.
Follow Alyssa Bereznak on Twitter or email her.
