HTC Announces Which Smartphones Are Android Pay-Compatible in the US

Finally, after months of waiting and more than a week after its official announcement, Android Pay is now available on Google Play Store. NFC stands for Near-Field Communication and is the technology that powers actions such as turning on a light when your phone is in range with it. Unfortunately, Android Pay is only available to U.S. users as of right now. Soon enough, even Android apps will be able to accept payment from Android Pay as an efficient mobile payment method.

The basic requirements of Android Pay are a smartphone with NFC capabilities and should run Operating System KitKat 4.4 and later.

According to Google Play’s page, Android Pay is the simplest and safest way to pay with an Android phone at over million stores in the United States that support Near Field Communications (NFL), which enables electronic devices to establish radio communication with each other by bringing the devices closer together.

However, the service still has some imperfections. It works similarly like Apple Pay and Samsung Pay in the sense of allowing users to make payments at point-of-sale using NFC technology on their mobile devices. Perhaps that Wallet is an iOS app while Android Pay will never be is a reason for the split. Apart from the promise of “tasty new treats and much s’more”, tech enthusiasts did not get much from Google’s statement on the event scheduled for September 29th. If you are now using Google Wallet, this payment service will be replaced once you download Android Pay.

Some big names are already on board with Android Pay, including Aeropastle, McDonald’s, AT&T, and Macy’s. Now Android Pay is only available in USA and supports various credit and debit cards from different banks of US.

Other users, who do not own a bank account in the banks supported by the app, had to use Google Wallet for mobile payments with the card they wanted to use inside of Android Pay. In the meantime, Google continues to explore and come up with new ideas in order to deliver satisfying services to the consumers, provide better solutions with its business partners, as well as do better than their market rivals.