Social networking giant Facebook recently introduced a new feature in Messenger that gives users a more convenient and secure way to send or receive money between friends. According to the company the new payments feature will be rolling out in the coming months in the US across Android, iOS, and desktop.

Soon, American users of its Messenger app will be able to link their debit cards to the service and use it to message money to one another just as easily as they send a snapshot or text. Facebook’s new payments feature encourages users to store their debit card info on the company’s machines.

According to Wired Magazine, this payment feature will likely fuel Facebook’s efforts to transform itself into a kind of e-commerce engine that competes directly with the likes of Amazon. The company is already testing a “buy” button on its social network that lets users instantly purchase stuff that shows up in their newsfeed. Now, that buy button will becomes more powerful if users have already entered their card into Facebook.

Last year, David Marcus, the CEO of payments giant PayPal, had joined Facebook to oversee Messenger. And later, on a Facebook earnings call, Founder & CEO Mark Zuckerberg indicated that Messenger would dovetail with some sort of peer-to-peer payments service. Here is how it works:

Sending money:

1. Start a message with a friend
2. Tap the $ icon and enter the amount you want to send
3. Tap Pay in the top right and add your debit card to send money

Receiving money:

1. Open the conversation from your friend
2. Tap Add Card in the message and add your debit card to accept money for the first time

The money users send is transferred right away, but it may take one to three business days to make the money available to the user depending on one’s bank, just as it does with other deposits.

Recently, Facebook recently made its move into the highly competitive e-commerce space after it acquired shopping search engine ‘TheFind.’