Skype Gets 'Send Money' Feature, Powered by PayPal

Microsoft's chat and video calling service Skype underwent through an entire design revamp in June this year for which it also faced a lot of criticism. On Wednesday, Microsoft introduced payment services in Skype via PayPal. Skype users will now be able to send across money in chats using their PayPal accounts. The feature is available on the latest version of Skype on both Android and iOS platforms in 22 countries initially.

In order to initiate a money transfer on Skype, users will need to tap Find or swipe right to open the listed add-ins. Amongst the add-ins, tap on Send Money and select the country you live in, followed by the country of the contact you want to send money to. Then, enter the amount and hit Next upon which you'll be asked to sign into your PayPal account and link it with the Microsoft one. After this is completed, tap Send to complete your transfer, and return to the chat screen to check the transfer status.

When someone sends you money in Skype, a Money Transfer card will show in the chat, click on it and you'll be redirected to a secured payment website, where after tapping on Collect, the money will get transferred to your account.

Notably, users who use a Skype client instead of the actual app will also be able to make the transfers, albeit with an additional process involved. When you receive money from someone using the client, a message with a link will appear on the chat screen, clicking on which will take you to the website where you can further tap on Collect and get the money.

The 22 countries where the feature is now available are the US, Canada, the UK, and the euro currency countries (Austria, Belgium, Cyprus, Estonia, Spain, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Luxembourg, Malta, Netherlands, Portugal, San Marino, Slovakia, Slovenia). Both the sender and receiver must be from one of the countries in which Send Money is supported.

Recently, Skype in India received the integration for identity verification via Aadhaar, India's own biometric-based identity service for citizens. The Aadhaar integration was rolled out for Skype Lite, an app especially designed for India, which lets users identify themselves on request in video calls during the Aadhaar verification process.