The service is available in a number of countries

Mar 7, 2017 09:34 GMT  ·  By

Google has just announced that it made Android Pay available in a new European country, Belgium. The service allows users to easily and securely make payments with their Android smartphones in the tenth country in the world to benefit from this service.

Android users in Belgium will be able to use Android Pay at more than 85,000 retail locations that accept contactless payments. The locations include major retail stores, grocery stores, restaurants, pharmacies, and many more.

In order to use Android Pay, customers simply need to wake up their phones and hold them to the payment terminal. They don’t need to open the Android Pay app or unlock the smartphone for the feature to work. After check out, users get information on their phones about the transactions that they’ve just completed.

Android Pay is available in the Play store

Google’s Android Pay doesn’t require users to fill in address details or enter the payment whenever they wish to complete a transaction. Android Pay also works in a number of applications that offer paid services, including Hotel Tonight and Fancy, and it will arrive to Uber soon.

Android Pay is available in the Play Store and works with eligible Master Card or Visa credit cards, while support for a number of debit cards from multiple banks is expected to arrive soon. The service is available on Android phones running KitKat 4.4 or higher and requires NFC for in-store purchases.

Android Pay directly competes against Samsung Pay and Apple Pay. The former recently announced that it expanded to India, while Apple Pay is now available in Ireland. Samsung Pay is expected to continue its expansion to Sweden later this year, while Apple Pay will also stay competitive and launch in more and more countries. The competition in the mobile payment market is certainly heating up, especially since analysts predict the market will grow and reach $1.08 trillion in 2019.