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Person-to-person payments are a sudden hotbed of innovation. Many banks and technology companies are rethinking their approach to P2P and finding ways to offer the service in a way that is genuinely appealing to the mobile generation.
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Beyond Apple Pay

Apple was expected to add P2P as a feature of Apple Pay, but a recent patent indicates that the feature might actually come to its proprietary text-messaging service, iMessage. This split approach echoes what Google did in dividing Android Pay and Google Wallet.
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The Google Inc. Mobile Wallet card for cardless payment sits on display at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Spain, on Wednesday, Feb. 29, 2012. The Mobile World Congress, operated by the GSMA, expects 60,000 visitors and 1400 companies to attend the four-day technology industry event which runs Feb. 27 through March 1. Photographer: Chris Ratcliffe/Bloomberg
Chris Ratcliffe/Bloomberg

Google Wallet Grows

Following the launch of Android Pay, Google Wallet was whittled down to a pure P2P product, but it was not about to be phased out. In December, Google updated Google Wallet to enable users to choose payment recipients from their contacts list and send funds via text message.
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Social media apps including WhattsApp, LinkedIn, Twitter, FaceBook, Instagram, SnapChat and Periscope are displayed in a social media folder on the screen of an Apple Inc. iPhone 6 in this arranged photograph taken in London, U.K., on Friday, May, 15, 2015. Facebook Inc. reached a deal with New York Times Co. and eight other media outlets to post stories directly to the social network's mobile news feeds, as publishers strive for new ways to expand their reach. Photographer: Chris Ratcliffe/Bloomberg
Chris Ratcliffe/Bloomberg

The 'Uber' of P2P?

Is the "Uber of Payments" going to be Uber itself? The ride-sharing service's recent pact with Facebook blurs the line between P2P and commerce by letting users request rides from within Facebook's Messenger app, which also supports P2P payments for splitting the fare.
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The Ebay Inc. Venmo application (app) is arranged for a photograph on an Apple Inc. iPhone 5s in Washington, D.C., U.S., on Friday, Aug. 22, 2014. After downloading the Venmo mobile-payment app onto a smartphone, users can connect them to bank and credit-card accounts, and then link up with friends to send and receive money on-the-go. Venmo, based in New York, alone handled $314 million in mobile payments in the first quarter of this year, up 62 percent from the prior quarter. Photographer: Andrew Harrer/Bloomberg
Andrew Harrer/Bloomberg

Venmo Branches Out

Venmo is one of the few P2P app makers that has generated a following, but the PayPal-owned system isn't sitting still. Venmo is testing a feature that would let merchants tap into its audience.
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Early Warning/ClearXchange

Early Warning, a bank-run risk management service, is taking over the bank-run P2P service clearXchange. The combination brings more big banks together while creating new opportunities for both services.
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time is money
VikZa/Getty Images/iStockphoto

Faster Payments

The push for a faster payments system in the U.S. has major implications for P2P, and already some P2P providers like Dwolla and clearXchange are promoting their own products as the foundation on which to build the new system.
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Square Cash

Square's P2P app may not take the spotlight very often, but it could do more behind the scenes. It powers Snapchat's Snapcash functionality and could be adapted for other messaging services that want a quick way to add payments.
Technology Disruptors Mobile payments P-to-P payments
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