Facebook Messenger makes it easier to get your friends to pay up

Want to poll your friends about dinner plans? How about recoup the money you laid out for your friends' movie tickets? Facebook Messenger has got you.

Facebook announced Thursday it is rolling out polling and money prompt features to its popular messaging app, new features that are part of Messenger's drive to become a central online hub for people's daily activities and interactions.

Both features are easily accessible. With polls, you tap the new polling icon inside a Messenger chat window.

Unlike Twitter's public polling system, the new Messenger feature only appears in the group you are chatting with. Those in the group must have the latest version of the Messenger app on Android or iOS to see and interact with the poll.

When it comes payments, you don't even have to tap anything to remind your friend to send you money. Messenger is using machine learning, not humans, to analyze "meaning and intent" behind words to determine if someone is requesting payment. If your friend, for example, mentions that you owe that person $20, Messenger will show a pop-up.

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If you and your friend have already linked a debit card to your Messenger account, the transaction can even be completed within the app.

Both moves come as Facebook continues to try and reposition Messenger as the center of the Facebook experience. The app, which in July passed the 1 billion user mark, has grown this year to do much more than basic chat with friends, emulating popular messaging apps in Asia while also fending off U.S. rivals such as Snapchat. At its annual F8 conference for software developers in April, the social network announced a new "chat bots" platform to allow companies and services to interact with users inside the app.

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Facebook is also prepping its own digital assistant, called M, that will live inside Messenger.

Follow Eli Blumenthal on Twitter @eliblumenthal