Earlier this week, the Android version of Google Wallet dropped its long-standing NFC requirement and became available for anything running Android 2.3 and higher. We speculated that an iPhone version might be available sometime soon, and sure enough, Google today announced that Wallet is coming to the iPhone.

Since the iPhone has no NFC chip, you won't be able to tap and pay at credit card terminals. The main feature of the new Google Wallet is the ability to send money between friends. This works in a similar fashion to PayPal: you'll have an account with Google that will store money and be linked to a real bank account. When someone sends you money, it will go into your Google account, and you can later transfer it to your bank or spend it online. Google says that once you do this from an iPhone, you'll also get early access to sending money via desktop Gmail.

Google Wallet will also support loyalty cards, much like Apple's Passbook application. It will scan your loyalty cards' barcodes with the iPhone camera and store them for later. When at checkout, just dig up the stored barcode and have the cashier scan your phone screen. If you're worried about security, Google offers 100% coverage for any fraudulent transactions, but you will have to deal with Google customer service.

Google Wallet should be available from the App Store sometime today.