NFC technology is here to stay, as you know It was implemented a few years ago, and was very well received and boom a couple of years ago, due to the global pandemic. It is used all over the world for multitude of functionalities different, linking with speakers, payment systems, something as simple as seeing the menu in a restaurant, transferring data or contacts between different devices… But really? Do you know what NFC is for on the iPhone?? Do we know how it works?
As you can see, the use options are many, and once you have seen some of them, some questions arise: does my iPhone have this NFC technology enabled? How can I activate it on my iPhone? Do all iPhones have NFC?
In today’s article I am going to try to explain it, in the most complete and simple way possible, to clear up any doubts, let’s get to it!
How to activate NFC on your iPhone
This functionality simply cannot be turned on or off.. This functionality is enabled by default on our iPhone, and is only activated if an application on our device requires it.
For this reason, unlike other operating systems such as Android, where the user can activate or deactivate it at will, the reality is that, in iOS, we cannot control it, we do not have a button or setting for it.
After knowing this, it is logical that another question arises, we are going to try to solve it.
What iPhone models have NFC technology?
All iPhones for many years have NFC, in fact since 2014, that is from iPhone 6all the mobile phones of the Cupertino boys have an integrated NFC chip.
Here’s the full list of NFC-enabled iPhone devices:
- iPhone 6, iPhone 6 Plus, iPhone 6S and iPhone 6S Plus
- iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus
- iPhone 8 and iPhone 8 Plus
- iPhone X, iPhone XR, iPhone XS and iPhone XS Max
- iPhone 11, iPhone 11 Pro and iPhone 11 Pro Max
- iPhone SE and second-generation iPhone SE
- iPhone 12, iPhone 12 Mini, iPhone 12 Pro, and iPhone 12 Pro Max
- iPhone 13, iPhone 13 Mini, iPhone 13 Pro, and iPhone 13 Pro Max
It is true that, in the first iPhones, this functionality was a bit limited than what we have today, since it could only be used for make payments through Apple Paybut nevertheless, with the arrival of the iPhone 7, this technology improved, and already allowed us, among other things, read labelsto find out more about a monument, for example, but the options for use were many more.
In addition, with the introduction of the iPhone XS and iPhone XR, hand in hand with the release of iOS 13, we could also encode blank NFC tags using third-party applications.
And finally, the rest of the iPhone arrived, iPhone XS, or iPhone 12 for example, which could already be lRead NFC tags in the background. We no longer needed third-party applications to read NFC tags, simply by bringing the iPhone close to said tag, the terminal automatically identified it.
As I mentioned above, for a time, this simple gesture was very useful for us, since you could see the menu of a restaurant from our iPhone, without having to see the menu, and touch it, something very important a few years ago.
Right now, all iPhones that have NFC, and are running iOS 14 or later, will be able to Automatically read all kinds of NFC tags, without the need to go to third-party services.
The options for use include, among others, web addresses, emails, telephone numbers.
How to use NFC on your iPhone correctly
Now that we know if our iPhone has NFC or not, we must learn how to use it correctly. The truth is that it is super simple, you just have to hold the top back of your iPhone close to the NFC tag that you want to recognize, and the device does it automatically. Once the device reads the NFC tag, it will show us its information on the screen of our iPhone.
Sometimes, those NFC tags not only give information, but are interactive, that is, they perform some action. For example, some portable speakers have NFC technology, so if we bring our device closer to the speaker, NFC will be activated, and we will be able to connect and configure the two devices, pairing them through said technology.
All pairings between devices are much faster via NFCbecause we do not have to do anything manually on either of the two computers, since, if we did not have NFC, we would have to enter the Bluetooth configuration of the computers to be paired, and wait until the pairing is made.
Apple Pay the way to pay with our iPhone
The way we use NFC the most on our iPhone on a daily basis is without a doubt Apple Pay.Apple’s payment gateway, available on all iPhones starting with the iPhone 6, and which works the same on all devices.
When we go to pay in a bar, we want to pay in a store, the cinema box office, many times we already do it with the iPhone, when not, many users now also use the Apple Watch.
In the case of the iPhone, all you have to do is take it out of your pocket, unlock it, either with fingerprint recognition, placing your finger on Touch ID, or if you have a device with facial recognition, double-clicking the side button and placing the device near the payment box, which already has the drawing of the NFC signal.
Once you go to make the payment, the device will make a sound, for you to approve the transaction through Face ID.
When you hold your device near the dataphone, iPhone automatically turns on NFC, then It asks you for authentication and then you make the payment through Apple Pay.
NFC is the acronym for Near Field Communicationwhich translated into Spanish would be Near Field Communication, is an increasingly popular technology these days.
And you? Do you use the possible usage options that NFC gives you on your iPhone on a daily basis? Do you do more than just pay with your device?
Let us know in comments how you use NFC in your day to day.
