The present disclosure relates to systems, methods, and devices that provide a transactional payment system. In particular, the transactional payment system allows users of a messaging system to send and receive electronic payments to and from other users of the messaging system. A messaging application on a client device can receive payment information input (such as a payment amount and payment method) from a sender for making a payment to a recipient. The messaging application can send a payment message including the payment information to a messaging system, and the messaging system coordinates a payment process based on the payment information. During the payment process, the messaging system can provide status updates to the sender and receiver of the payment via status messages that are included in a message thread corresponding to the sender and the recipient.