Snapchat messages disappear, but the money you can send in them doesn't
Heads up, millennials: Snapchat isn't just for sending evaporating selfies anymore. Thanks to a newly inked deal with Square (of all companies), you'll soon be able to fire off money at your Snapchat contacts after you've created a Snapcash account and connected a debit card. Really. It's that easy. Once that teensy bit of setup is done, the app will detect if you're sending a message to a friend with a dollar amount inside; when it does, the send button with sprout a dollar sign and you're ready to transfer those funds. The folks over at Re/code are reporting that the Android faithful in the United States will get the necessary app update some time today, with an iOS version to follow shortly.
The buzzy startup goes into a little more detail in the, frankly, pretty insane video below, but no one could blame you for being gun-shy. Snapchat's gotten a bad rap lately over some security lapses, even as it's pushed to make its users aware of sketchy third-party data thieves. Fortunately, it's actually Square that's storing and securing all of your payment information, as every Snapcash account opened has a Square Cash account connected to it. It's not hard to see how the move benefits both startups here: Snapchat gets another service to help legitimize it in the eyes of the non-20-somethings who keep hearing about it, and Square gets access to a slew of new users who might never have heard of it otherwise.
