iMessage Users Can Now Send Starbucks Gifts

Remember the old adage sharing is caring? Well, it’s especially true if there’s caffeine involved.

An early mobile adopter, Starbucks continues to roll out new mobile ordering functionalities on its brand app as well as on third-party applications.

For their part, Starbucks recently announced a new feature that will allow iMessage users to send each other digital Starbucks gift cards in-app, like they can in the Starbucks mobile app. Gifters are able to pay via Apple Pay, while receivers use their phones to redeem their drink.

This isn’t the first gifting move Starbucks has made outside the confines of its dedicated mobile application. Back in December, Starbucks partnered with WeChat to provide the 768 million daily active users of the Chinese messaging app with an integrated social gifting feature (Starbucks also joined WeChat’s payments family in the move).

Starbucks has been doing well with its own mobile app, too. It is so popular, in fact, that baristas have struggled to keep up with order volume — so much so that it has created long lines out the door, in some cases. The coffee chain giant started adding additional baristas focused on mobile orders and payments at the stores that have top volume during peak hours.

Must be tough to be so popular.

In an additional effort to make its mobile ordering system run more smoothly, Starbucks recently began testing a new technology that sends customers text messages when their mobile orders are ready. The company has started the tests in the Seattle area in an effort to prevent overcrowding.