[sktrdie]

Why do services like whatsapp need support for this? We have URLs people!

Here I just send an URL to my friend via whatsapp. They click on the link. The site takes care of giving user whichever payment method they desire. User pays. That's it.

From a user's perspective to pay I just have to click a link. And to get paid I just send a link. How easier can it get?

[aprdm]

In Canada people can pay you by having your email or phone number in their bank app.

Works really well!

[mixmastamyk]

That's problematic and not as good as direct bank to bank transfers.

[alphakilo]

Electronic Money Transfer (EMT)/e-transfering is a bank-to-bank transfer in Canada.

[mixmastamyk]

It may be convenient use other ids besides bank account numbers, but it adds another avenue for mistakes.

[frosted-flakes]

Such as...?

To me, passing around a long unstructured numeric string is a lot more error-prone than selecting a contact from my banking app, or writing a short, structured phone number or email address. In any case, the recipient needs to know the secret one-word answer to the question set by the sender, which would prevent wrong parties from claiming money (this can be skipped if the recipient registered their phone number or email address forbauto-deposit).

[mixmastamyk]

They are not unstructured and have checksum digits in proper implementations.

[topoftheforts]

Why do services like whatsapp need support for GIFs? We have URLs people!

Here I just send an URL to the GIF to my friend via whatsapp. They click on the link. They look at the GIF. That's it.

From a user's perspective to see a GIF I just have to click a link. And to send one I just send a link. How easier can it get?

---

I swear HN's community has the brightest minds yet so often it fails to understand simple user experience stuff (see the infamous Dropbox comment)

[InsomniacL]

Whatsapp could allow plugins from banks or other payment providers using an open standard that other applications could use. Just like i can choose to open a link in Chrome or Safari or Firefox, why not open a 'payment request in ... ' I fear tech companies using their market dominance to gain a monopoly, like 'Apple Pay' with iPhone apps.

[mschuster91]

Whatsapp is aiming to become an all-in-one solution. When I click on a link in Whatsapp my phone takes at least 10-20 seconds to open the page, and that could be eliminated - similar to M-Pesa in Africa...

[nroets]

Fraudsters may trick people into sending the wrong URL.

If Whatsapp controls the payment platform, they can prevent a lot of fraud by mining their meta data. For example, if the payment is marked as a gift, but the parties do not have a vibrant conversation, there is likely fraud.