Split the bill: PayPal launches Slack bot for peer-to-peer transactions

PAYPAL has launched a new bot that allows Slack users to send and receive money to colleagues without ever having to leave the messaging app.

Workplace transactions can be complicated and fiddly, often leaving someone short-changed in the process. The new PayPal bot hopes to remove all of that stress by making instant payment possible with a simple five word command.

The peer-to-peer (P2P) payment service is PayPal’s first ever bot and comes after an uptick of P2P payments noticed by the company over recent years. In 2015 alone, PayPal Holdings processed US$41 billion in P2P volume across PayPal, Venmo and Xoom – a 42 percent increase in P2P total payment value from the previous year.

SEE ALSO: PayPal moves a step closer to accepting Bitcoin

According to a press release from the company, PayPal has been focused on offering customers a variety of innovative, easy and secure ways to move and manage their money, and their latest bot is another avenue of that mission.

Organizing coffee runs, splitting the check at team lunches and buying office gifts can now be easily solved online with one instant payment direct to your colleague’s PayPal account.

The PayPal bot, currently only available in the U.S., U.K., Australia, and Canada, can be used by typing “/PayPal” followed by your command straight into Slack once it’s installed.

This is not PayPal’s first venture into making P2P payments easier for the customer. Late last year the company integrated with Apple’s smart assistant Siri to allow users to send and request money via a voice command with the operating system.

They have also teamed up with Microsoft Outlook to enable people to send money directly from their Outlook email account.

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