The ground-breaking service, launched in February, is free to use and allows users to send and receive money simply using a mobile number, without the need to share bank details. The service is available to over 16s who have a UK current account and UK mobile phone number.

Barclays Pingit has been downloaded over 400,000 times in its first eight weeks and it was the number one financial app in the UK Apple App Store in February. The service is also proving popular with small businesses and eBay users, with many starting to accept payments by Barclays Pingit as an alternative to cash, cards, cheques and online transfers.

Now that the service is fully available to Barclays and non-Barclays customers, a range of additional uses for Barclays Pingit are planned for consumers and businesses in the coming months, as well as new features including joint account registrations and further business functionality. In response to strong customer demand, the service was expanded to 16 and 17 year olds with a current account at the end of February.

Antony Jenkins, Chief Executive, Retail and Business Banking, Barclays: "Barclays Pingit is proving to be more popular than even we were expecting and from today the customers of all UK banks and building societies can also benefit. The ability to make simple payments to whoever they want, wherever they are, instantly and securely, is making many people's lives much easier.

"Barclays Pingit is potentially a revolution in banking but this is just the beginning. We are listening to customer feedback and monitoring the demand for additional functionality so there's a lot more to come over the next few months."

The Barclays Pingit app is free to download from the Apple App Store, BlackBerry App World and Android Market. Users without a smartphone can register online to receive money if they have a UK mobile phone number and current account, regardless of their model of mobile phone.