MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. (6/1/15)--Move aside Apple Pay, Google has just unveiled its own mobile payment service, called Android Pay.

Android Pay will allow consumers to make purchases with their phones through near-field communication (NFC) technology. The app also will work on any phone that has an NFC chip installed and that runs on KitKat operating systems. It also uses tokenization, similarly to Apple Pay.

But while the new mobile payment app enters a market in which it will compete with the likes of Apple, Samsung, PayPal, Visa and MasterCard, newly formed partnerships with all four card networks--American Express, Discover, Visa and MasterCard--will help bolster account provisioning (Pymnts.com May 29).

Only Apple Pay has taken advantage of such partnerships.

“Mobile payments is a big priority for Google, so we’ve been working with major networks like MasterCard to help provide a seamless experience across a wide range of phones and stores,” said Pali Bhat, Google director of product management (Pymnts.com). “Android Pay will offer people further simplicity, security and choice when paying for things with their Android phones.”

Users of the product will be able to utilize their phone’s unlocking mechanisms to access the mobile wallet. They also will be able to make payments with a fingerprint scanner.