Google has started rolling out Android Pay in the US.

An NFC mobile payments service, Android Pay is most commonly compared to Apple Pay. With its support for loyalty cards and vouchers, however, its actually closer to Passbook, the parent app Pay sits within, which is shortly to be rebranded as Wallet.

Android Pay works on any device running Android 4.4 or later, as long as it has NFC functionality. It supports credit and debit cards from American Express, Discover, MasterCard and Visa.

At launch, Android Pay is accepted at 1m locations, including US retail brands Macys, Whole Foods, Subway, Toys R Us and GameStop. Thats roughly in line with Apple Pay, which Apple announced would be available in over 1m US locations by July.

Android Pay is currently exclusively available for in-store payments, but Google announced it will be adding it as an option for in-app payments later this year.

With much of its previous functionality moving over to Pay, Google Wallet has unsurprisingly received an overhaul. The app now offers a single function: P2P money transfer using the recipients email address.