Ready to pay by tweet? Here's how new Twitter-powered payment service works in France

In a splashy press conference in Paris on Tuesday, banking giant Groupe BPCE unveiled details of its new service that lets users send money using a single Tweet.

Beginning today, anyone with a French bank account and a Twitter account can start using the service for free. And many already are.

Here’s how it works:

First, you download BPCE’s S-Money App from the the iTunes store or Google Play store. Note that both have been updated to versions that include the pay-by-tweet feature.

Next, fill in your credit card information. Then connect the app to your Twitter account. That’s it.

The key from there is tweeting using the exact symbols and words required:

Some people who spelled out “euros,” for instance, had their payments rejected.

A couple of important limitations remain. For now, users can send a maximum of €250 ($317.85) to individuals, and €500 ($635.70) to associations that are doing some kind of campaign or fundraising.

The other thing to remember is that these tweets are public, not direct messages. So you have to think about what kinds of payments you want the world to know you’re making.

Officials at BPCE and Twitter say this could be an advantage for non-profits and public service campaigns. If everyone in your feed is suddenly tweeting that they are giving $5 or $10 to a worthy cause, like the Campaign to Prevent Cats From Eating Twinkies, then there’s a chance the donations could go viral. After all, if you have this all hooked up, sending a tweet just takes a few seconds.

“This innovation opens up numerous opportunities in the payments field: charitable donations, crowdfunding in all its forms, ticketing, cash-back programmes, etc.,” said Nicolas Chatillon, chief executive of S-money, in a press release.

Another interesting note: This is not an official partnership between BPCE and Twitter. Instead, BPCE simply built the service using Twitter’s publicly available API documentation.

For those who speak a little French, here’s the BPCE video explaining the service:

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lLoHknuXBh8]