You can once again send money with PayPal from directly within the Skype mobile app, almost 10 years after they first enabled PayPal on their desktop app. Lost in Skype (now owned by Microsoft) and PayPal’s gushing press releases is that they are simply restoring functionality previously lost.
Let’s not be too hard on the PR bods though, the ability to send money in Skype is pretty cool for consumers. PayPal hope that you’ll be having a chat with a chum who will ask you cough up for cinema tickets or that you’ll be chatting on Skype to a sibling who will suggest you chip in for your mum’s birthday present… And of course you’ll be cornered because you’re on Skype and can pay with PayPal without even leaving the conversation.
The first time you use the Send Money feature within Skype you’ll be asked to confirm your in one of the 22 countries the service is available in. If the Send Money feature is available in your location, you will need to link your PayPal account to your Skype profile. PayPal handles the money transfers and usually within moments, your money is on its way.
It’s hard to see how this feature will be used for ecommerce so it’s likely that, at least to start with, it will be limited to consumer payments to friends and family (which incur no PayPal fees!). However with over a billion downloads of the Skype apps there’s a pretty good chance that some of the money floating around between PayPal accounts will eventually end up getting spent online.
Currently the feature is only available on the latest versions of Skype for Android or iOS. To access Send Money, simply swipe right in any Skype conversation.
The Send Money on the Skype App with PayPal is available in the United States, United Kingdom, Austria, Belgium, Canada, Cyprus, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Luxembourg, Malta, Netherlands, Portugal, San Marino, Slovakia, Slovenia and Spain.
