TikTok may soon let users send each other money without leaving a conversation. Bloomberg reports that code buried in TikTok's US iOS app points to a peer-to-peer payment feature built on TikTok Pay, the company's existing payment system, marking another step in the platform's steady push into financial services.

However, under the uncovered code, users will receive notifications on the progress of their payments, whereas recipients will be able to accept payments by pressing a button prior to an expiry deadline.

Users will also be able to write captions for every payment made, as is the culture on apps such as Venmo. The news was received negatively in the market as shares in existing firms such as PayPal and Western Union tumbled.

It will use the existing TikTok Pay payment system, which at present functions only in Southeast Asian markets such as Malaysia and Vietnam via TikTok Shop. 

In the US, the TikTok Shop uses payment systems such as PayPal, Apple Pay, Google Pay, Klarna, Affirm, and credit cards. This means that a direct messaging-based payment system would be an expansion of the TikTok Pay network.

A TikTok spokeswoman told Bloomberg that at present, there is no test of this feature in any market.

Such an idea is, however, not new within the TikTok family of corporations. The Chinese counterpart of the app called Douyin can make P2P payments via Douyin Pay.

ByteDance holds 19.9% in the TikTok US venture after selling its stake to TikTok USDS Joint Venture LLC in a compelled acquisition deal earlier this year and has applied to the Brazilian central bank for licences to be a lender and provide prepaid accounts.

Peer-to-peer payments are not new to social platforms. Facebook Messenger has offered the feature in the US since 2015, and X launched X Money for paid subscribers in July.