“Imagine a world where you can order pizza, pay for a pair of shoes, hire a cab, or refill your subway pass — all in a few button taps."
That's what Telegram -- which has some 100 million users -- is promising, with the launch of its new Bot Payments.
Telegram introduced chatbots nearly two years ago, but it's only now that the company is bringing support for payments for chatbots.
The company looks to be following the footsteps of messaging giants like WeChat -- where messaging apps are integrated with offline commerce and electronic wallets.
The Russian app is working with Stripe to enable payments, and will make payments available through localised options prevalent in developing countries, such as RazorPay, FlutterWave, PaymentWall and Yandex.Money.
You can try out Telegram's demo account, @ShopBot, which gives users a bit of an idea as to how the service works.
"Merchant bots can send specially formatted invoice messages to users. Such invoice messages feature a photo and description of the product along with a prominent Pay button," says Telegram on its blog page.
"When ready, users can enter their credit card info or choose one of their saved cards — and pay for the product. Telegram for iOS also supports Apple Pay. Once the transaction is done, the merchant bot sends a receipt message."
Now there's one more way to spend money.
Thanks Telegram.
