US Facebook Messenger users will soon be able to make payments to bots within the app through their PayPal accounts.
Over the last few months, Facebook has moved to develop Messenger beyond messaging, opening up to tens of thousands of bots and enabling them to sell products and services directly to customers within the app.
Until now, users have been able to make payments via debit cards but a new deal will see US customers able to link their PayPal accounts.
In addition to payments, the partnership will see customers able to get notifications in Messenger, first starting with making it easier to manage receipts for PayPal transactions.
The partnership gives PayPal access to a platform that is run by its former president David Marcus and facilitates over a billion messages a month.
However, the deal does not cover person-to-person payments, where Facebook is looking to take on PayPal's hugely successful Venmo service.