iMessage Payments - How It Works

To send a payment or charge request directly from iMessage, you can follow the steps below:  

To send a payment or charge request directly from iMessage, you can follow the steps below:

1. Open a conversation in Messages with the friend you’d like to pay or charge.

2. Tap  to the left of the text field and choose  to open up your apps that are connected with iMessage.

3. Swipe until you get to Venmo, or choose Venmo from the apps that you have connected by tapping the four grey bubbles in the lower lefthand corner of the keyboard. If you have not yet enabled the Venmo iMessage extension, you can find instructions on how to do that here.

4. If this is your first time sending a payment or charge request in iMessage, you’ll see a tutorial and you'll need to accept our terms and conditions. Once you get through that (or if you’ve done this before), choose “Request” or “Pay”.

5. Type in the amount and note, and then tap the Pay or Request button to send just like you normally would in the app!

Money leaves your account the moment you send a payment. However, the recipient needs to accept the payment before money is added to their Venmo balance.

6. Tap the  to the right of the text field to send the iMessage payment bubble to your friend. Once they receive that message, they’ll be able to accept your payment.

Payment status

Just like in the Venmo app, the moment you tap the “Pay” button, funds will be taken from your balance (or your default funding source if your balance is not enough). However, payments sent in iMessage work a bit differently for the recipient than payments in the app. Specifically, your friend needs to accept the payment for the funds to be added to their Venmo balance.

If your friend does not accept within 3 days, the funds will be reversed back to the funding source that you used to send the payment.

You can check to see if your friend has accepted the payment, or if it’s still pending, by opening up the iMessage payment bubble in the conversation. The status will be shown right at the top. You can always cancel the payment if it hasn’t been accepted yet by going to Incomplete in the Venmo app menu.

Accepting iMessage Payments

If you’ve received a payment via iMessage you’ll need to accept it for the funds to be added to your Venmo balance (and if you don’t have a Venmo account, you will need to sign up first). Depending on your device, there are a couple of different ways to do this:

• iOS 10
  • If you have iOS 10 installed on your phone, tap the iMessage payment bubble that your friend sent in your conversation. You may be prompted by Apple to update your Venmo app to the latest version before you can continue. Once you do, tap the blue “Accept Payment” button.  You should see a 👍emoji at the top of the screen indicating the funds were added to your Venmo balance. From there you can either view the payment in the Venmo app, or continue your conversation with your friend!
• Android, web & older versions of iOS
  • If you don’t have iOS 10 quite yet, good news - you can still accept payments sent in iMessage with an Android phone or other iOS enabled device (iOS 8+). If a friend sends you a payment using iMessage, you’ll see a link to accept the payment in the SMS thread. Tapping this link will launch the Venmo app or your web browser and take you to a screen where you can accept the payment. If you do not have a Venmo account yet, you’ll need to sign up first.

Canceling iMessage Payments

A payment sent in iMessage will expire and be automatically canceled if the recipient doesn’t accept the payment within three days. You can also manually cancel the payment before it is accepted by going to Incomplete in the Venmo app menu. Canceling the payment will return the funds to your funding source (not stop the original withdrawal from happening). A payment sent in iMessage cannot be canceled once the recipient has accepted it.

If you sent the funds using your Venmo balance, the funds will be returned there the moment the payment is canceled. If you used a bank account to fund the payment, please note that it will take 3 to 5 business days for the funds to be returned. If the payment was funded by a credit or debit card, the payment will be returned to that card. It may take up to thirty (30) days for the returned payment to be applied by your card issuer. You can contact them directly for specific timeframes.

There are a few ways to cancel a payment that you sent in iMessage:

• Go to Incomplete in the Venmo app menu and you should have the option to cancel any pending payments there
• If you are on iOS 10 or a desktop, you can open the iMessage payment bubble in the conversation and tap Incomplete Payments (this will take you to the Venmo app to cancel the payment)