Ever since it launched Messenger as a standalone app separate to its core social network, Facebook has been trying to transform the messaging service into something more central to consumers everyday lives.

The company added a peer-to-peer payments platform into the app around a year ago, and has slowly expanded functionality through partnerships with firms like Uber, as well as innovations like M, its AI assistant. Now, there are rumours the social network is aiming to enable in-store payments through Messenger.

According to The Information, new coding within the messaging app hints at a wealth of hidden functions that could be unlocked at a future date, including in-store payment, calendar syncing and encrypted chats.

The code for the iOS version of the app includes commands such as “pay in person” and “pay directly in Messenger when you pick up the item”, both of which imply that the app could soon be used to make payments in physical stores as an alternative to other mobile payment solutions or traditional methods.

This development goes against comments made by Mark Zuckerberg in January, when he stated during Facebooks Q4 earnings call that the company had now plans to build a payments fulfillment product, and instead was looking at a variety of firms for potential partnerships, including Apple Pay.

“We dont view ourselves as a payments business, thats not the type of company that we are,” said Zuckerberg at the time. “Well partner with everyone who does payment. We look at the stuff that Apple is doing with Apple Pay for example as a really neat innovation in the space that takes a lot of friction out of transactions as well.”

Facebook hasnt commented on The Informations findings, but its possible that either the company has rolled back on its suggestion that it had no interest in payments, or the system architecture is in preparation for a major partnership that will see payments technology deeply integrated into Messenger.