We have all been there. You just paid for a group dinner or bought concert tickets for friends, and now comes the uncomfortable part: the collection. You have to ask for their usernames, confirm you have the right "John Smith," and awkwardly remind them to hit send. It is a friction point that has existed as long as peer-to-peer (P2P) payments have been around.
Cash App, the payment service owned by Block, Inc., is rolling out a new feature designed to eliminate that specific social hurdle. According to new reports, the platform has introduced "payment links," a functionality that allows users to generate a request URL and drop it directly into a direct message (DM), text chain, or email.
This update represents a significant shift in how users interact with the app. Previously, moving money required knowing a specific identifier—usually a phone number or a $Cashtag. Now, the transaction can begin with a simple link, bringing Cash App in line with the ease of use we typically associate with e-commerce checkout flows rather than P2P transfers.
How do the new payment links actually work?
The mechanism is surprisingly straightforward and mirrors a behavior many internet-savvy users are already familiar with. Instead of navigating to a request screen and typing in a specific recipient’s details, users can now select a "share link" option directly within the payment tab.
Once generated, this link acts as a broadcastable payment request. You can paste it into a WhatsApp group, send it via Instagram DM, or text it to a friend. When the recipient taps the link, they are taken instantly to a payment flow. Crucially, this removes the need to exchange username details beforehand.
This mimics the "payment link" infrastructure popularized by business-focused platforms like Stripe and the "PayPal.me" functionality. However, by integrating it into the core consumer interface of Cash App, Block is betting on reducing the friction of casual, everyday transactions.
Why is Cash App targeting Gen Z with this feature?
While this feature is useful for anyone, the research suggests a specific demographic focus: Gen Z. Reports indicate that the feature was designed specifically to make asking for money "less awkward." Younger demographics often view traditional, direct payment requests as uncomfortable or confrontational.
By transforming a request into a link that can be casually dropped into a conversation, Cash App is softening the social blow of debt collection among friends. It changes the dynamic from "Pay me specifically" to "Here is the link for that thing we did."
This aligns with the broader trend of "social commerce," where financial transactions happen natively within social platforms. By allowing the link to live in DMs, Cash App is effectively meeting these users where they already spend their time, rather than forcing them to switch apps just to locate a user profile.
How does this fit into the wider fintech ecosystem?
This update does not exist in a vacuum. It follows a strategic expansion of the Cash App ecosystem observed over the last year. In late 2025, the platform rolled out a major "Fall Release," which introduced "Moneybot," a new AI-powered personal finance assistant, and integrated Afterpay functionality for P2P payments.
The addition of payment links complements these features by further removing barriers to entry. Whether it is splitting a bill or a creator collecting tips, the goal is to reduce the number of steps required to complete a transaction. Competitors like Venmo and PayPal have long offered variations of profile sharing, but the ability to generate transaction-specific links for DMs positions Cash App aggressively against both traditional P2P rivals and gig-economy tools.
Looking Ahead
This move is smarter than it looks on the surface. By decoupling the payment request from the user identity search (the dreaded "which $Cashtag is yours?" dance), Cash App is effectively turning every DM into a potential point of sale. This benefits casual users splitting bills, but the real winner here is the gig economy worker and the social creator who can now collect payments across different platforms without platform-switching friction. It signals that Block is moving Cash App away from being just a "money transfer tool" and toward becoming the universal liquidity layer of the social internet.
