{"id":76068,"date":"2021-07-08T09:00:00","date_gmt":"2021-07-08T14:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/eshop.macsales.com\/blog\/?p=76068"},"modified":"2021-07-07T16:13:11","modified_gmt":"2021-07-07T21:13:11","slug":"experimenting-with-nfc-tags","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/eshop.macsales.com\/blog\/76068-experimenting-with-nfc-tags\/","title":{"rendered":"Experimenting With NFC Tags: iPhone Shortcuts"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

You may have heard the term NFC<\/strong> (Near-Field Communications) used when describing iPhone features. NFC has been in each iPhone since iPhone 6. NFC is used for the setup of Apple devices by placing them near each other, as well as for Apple Pay. In this post, I\u2019ll show you how you can do some useful and fun things with inexpensive NFC tags, your iPhone, and an app.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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What Exactly Does NFC Do?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Apple’s Developer website has a great explanation of NFC:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Near Field Communication (NFC) enables devices within a few centimeters of each other to exchange information wirelessly. iOS apps running on supported devices can use NFC scanning to read data from electronic tags attached to real-world objects. For example, a user can scan a toy to connect it with a video game, a shopper can scan an in-store sign to access coupons, or a retail employee can scan products to track inventory.<\/p>Apple Human Interface Guidelines, Near Field Communications<\/a><\/cite><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

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NFC Tags Require An App<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

NFC requires an app on the iPhone that displays a prompt telling a user to hold the iPhone near one or more NFC tags or devices. The prompt is a “scanning sheet”, and you’ve probably seen one before:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"An
An NFC scanning sheet on an iPhone<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

That’s similar to the prompt displayed when setting up an AirTag. The “Near-Field” communications is truly “near”, just 4 cm (1.5 inches) of range. That’s much less than the 10 m (33 feet) range or so provided by Bluetooth. That’s also why you need to come quite close to a payment terminal when using Apple Pay. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Fortunately, there are many third-party apps available for writing and reading NFC tags. You’ll need to write to an NFC tag to get it to do something when the iPhone reads it. We’ll get to the app in a minute. First, let’s look at NFC tags in more detail.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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NFC Tags<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

NFC tags are small flexible circuitry stickers containing an antenna and memory. The tags do not require power of any sort. The reading and writing device (in this case, an iPhone) initiate communications. The tags are very inexpensive, costing as little as $0.10 each in large quantities. For the purpose of this article, I bought 11 tags for about $0.73 each. Here’s an Amazon link to those tags<\/a>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Closeup<\/a>
Closeup photo of an NTAG215 NFC sticker (actual diameter is 3.5cm – 1.38in)<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

The most common tags at this time are called NTAG215<\/strong>, although there are three other types available. These tags are all pre-formatted to store NDEF <\/strong>messages. NDEF stands for NFC Data Exchange Format, which is a basically a message consisting of a header and a payload. The header defines the length and type of the message, while the payload is the data to be transferred.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Tag Actions (Records)<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

When an iPhone running an NFC app is brought near an NFC tag, it recognizes the existence of the tag and reads the NDEF message on the tag. It then performs an action – what our app refers to as a record. What kind of actions are there? Here are just a few:<\/p>\n\n\n\n