Almost all of today’s smartphones and smart watches are equipped with NFC technology. Whether you realize it or not, your phone’s NFC scanner is likely active right now.
Don’t worry, though, as the NFC chip in your phone is a passive scanner that does nothing until you hold it within a couple of inches of another NFC device or tag. Like many features of your smartphone, it quietly sits in the background until it’s needed, but it can also be used to unlock a wide range of cool features that can make your life easier.
If you’ve ever used Apple Pay, Google Pay, or Samsung Pay, then you’ve already taken advantage of the NFC feature on your phone. However, NFC can do a lot more than just handle mobile payments. Here’s the low-down on all things NFC.
NFC, which is short for near-field communication, is a technology that allows devices like phones and smartwatches to exchange small bits of data with other devices and read NFC-equipped cards over relatively short distances.
This is where the funcationality of the3 digital business card, ICE wristband and pet tags come into their own.
The technology behind NFC is very similar to radio-frequency identification (RFID) commonly used in the security cards and keychain fobs that you likely already use to get into your office or gym.
In fact, NFC is an evolution of RFID that offers more advanced features and better security, but the two technologies still share a lot of things in common.
Perhaps most significantly, NFC doesn’t require you to jump through the kind of hoops that you may be used to with Bluetooth or Wi-Fi devices. There are no manual pairing or device discovery steps or passwords to deal with. All you need to do is place your smartphone within about four inches of another NFC device; it should immediately detect it and be ready to go.