Consumers are adopting mobile-payment products, albeit at a slow pace, reveals a new study by Citi Cards.

According to the 2016 Citi Cards Consumer Perspectives Study, 20 percent of those surveyed said they currently use a mobile wallet.

The 2016 Citi Cards Consumer Perspectives Study was conducted by Wakefield Research among 1,500 nationally representative U.S. adults between April 20, 2016 and April 27, 2016 using an online survey. The survey has a margin of error of plus or minus 2.5 percentage points at the 95 percent confidence level.

Citi concluded that as the technology becomes easier to use, there are signs that mobile is indeed the future. Nearly 1 in 4 (21 percent) Americans, including 44 percent of millennials, who do not use a smartphone or mobile payment app, are likely to start using a mobile payment app in the next 12 months.

But, for this to materialize, consumers overwhelmingly want an easy payments experience across every channel. Citi's survey found that 72 percent of respondents agree that paying a bill with a smartphone "should be as easy as texting."

"In today's world that is increasingly digital by default, convenience and ease are no longer nice-to-haves; they are must-haves," said Jud Linville, CEO of Citi Global Cards and Consumer Services. "Enabling commerce with minimal friction is becoming – if not has become – table stakes."

Over the next 12 months, 84 percent of smartphone users who use or plan to use a payment app will specifically shop with a merchant because they accept mobile payments.

Still, some consumers think certain payment products are more trustworthy than others. When asked which type of companies they’d trust the most when inputting credit card information into a mobile payment service, like a mobile wallet, 71 percent of Americans would trust a service backed by an established bank, compared to a company that specializes in mobile payments (18 percent) or a company that makes digital devices (11 percent).