Uber on Facebook Messenger: Request a Ride without Leaving your Messenger

Facebook Messenger users can now sign up for the car-hailing service and request a ride, all without leaving a conversation or downloading the Uber app. The features are still in a testing phase so people who live in cities in the U.S where Uber is available can arrange rides directly from the app. Though the social network has plans for a wider rollout in the future.

The idea of this Facebook feature is to make it easier for friends to make plans with each other by offering a way to arrange transportation without the need to leave the app.

According to Mashable, Messenger users presently have two options to grab an Uber from a message thread: You can select "transportation from the "..." menu (where you'll also find payments, location and other third-party apps). Alternatively, if a friend has shared an address, you can tap the address and select "request ride."

Additionally, if you're messaging with a friend who requests a ride from that thread, you'll see a notification that they requested a ride.

Facebook is testing the ability to book an Uber car directly from inside the Messenger chat app. The new feature is the first transportation partnership for Messenger, but Facebook hopes to add other ride-hailing companies in the future. It is rolling out slowly to users in the United States at first.

Wired says that by layering additional services on top of Messenger, Facebook seems to be seeking the holy grail of messaging that is WeChat in China. In China, WeChat is technically a messaging service, but it really works more like an Everything App for its more than half a billion users. In China, consumers use WeChat to accomplish everything from booking a train ticket to getting their laundry done to, yes, ordering a car (likely from Didi Kuaidi, the biggest competitor to Uber in the country).

So far, Messenger's progress is promising. Use is mushrooming. The new Uber feature appears aimed at providing even more of an incentive for users to stay within the world of Facebook. Why leave for the Internet at large if you can do the things you want to right inside Facebook and Messenger?

According to Tech Crunch, Uber also plans to use Messenger as a test case for real-time customer service - something Uber has been criticized for lacking much of. "We will start testing live support through Messenger to find out if this is the best way to start using real-time support through this," Uber's head of API and strategic partnerships Rahul Bijor said.

As of today, Uber on Messenger is available in select users in places where Uber operates in the US, including San Francisco, Boston, Houston, Los Angeles, and Miami. Within a week, the companies say, the feature will be available everywhere else in the US that Uber operates. While this integration makes Uber the first official transportation option on Messenger, it may not be the last. Facebook hasn't promised Uber an exclusive on providing on-demand rides through Messenger. Facebook, it seems, wants Messenger to be a window on the whole world, not just Uber's.