News

Did Snapchat Just Create A Way To Pay For Nudes?

by Nathan Resnick

Snapchat recently announced its partnership with Square to launch Snapcash, a new service for sending money to friends. Snapcash will initially only be available to US Snapchat users who are 18 years and older, though it will presumably expand to other countries moving forward.

While Venmo, Google Wallet and more try to take a business approach to peer-to-peer payments, Snapchat has swooped in from the consumer side.

Now, you can add a debit card, type a dollar amount into Snapchat’s text-chat feature and hit the green pay button to instantly send a friend money. The feature is currently available on both Android and iOS.

The only other requirement you need to fulfill is having a Visa or MasterCard debit card. After you enter your debit card number into Snapchat, the company says it is securely stored by Square, which will handle the actual payment processing.

Once you have that set up, all you have to do is swipe into chat, type the dollar sign, amount you want to send and hit the green Snapcash button that shows up on the right. Snapchat and Square take care of the rest.

This gives the app the potential to one day send you a Snap or show a story ad from a merchant and let you buy the product shown, through Snapchat, and in an instant.

Snapchat could also potentially cross-reference debit card info through Snapcash connected accounts to improve its ad targeting, depending on how its relationship with Square Cash works.

That cash will be waiting for the recipient to sign up and if the invitation isn't accepted within 24 hours, the cash will be refunded, so you don’t have to worry your money disappearing.

Notably, Snapcash messages don't automatically disappear from chats, as do other messages sent through the feature. It's worth pointing out that once you send money to someone via Snapcash, there's no way to cancel the transaction.

Users can view a history of completed transactions and manage their debit card settings from the Snapcash menu within the app's main settings. Snapcash doesn't have many security settings, but you can choose to require your card's security code for each payment.

The app also places some limits on how much money can be sent and received.

When first using the feature, users are limited to sending $250 a week, though that limit can be raised to as much as $2,500 "in most states," according to Snapchat.

That is, if you verify your identity through Square, providing your full name, social security number and date of birth.

Sounds like you can start getting paid for your nudes, right? Next time you get a Snap, beware that someone may be asking for some cash with it. Don't worry though, no need to ask for your permission to send these pics because they already know you're over 18.