It's not really "send-money-to-anyone-with-a-phone-number", it's "send-money-to-anyone-with-the-mobilepay-app-installed" - and it only works on iPhones and unrooted Android phones with Google services enabled.
As someone who doesn't have it, it's very rapidly become the thing that makes me feel the most like a second-class citizen.
It would be nice if they'd also implement it using online banking.
The British version (PayM) isn't used much, but at least you can add a phone number to your own account within normal internet banking, and send money to a number linked to an account without using either side using an app.
As someone who doesn't have it, it's very rapidly become the thing that makes me feel the most like a second-class citizen.