I was bored, and my wife was looking for something for my kid’s school on Amazon. We needed to add something to get free shipping. I remember that I did some research into NFC tags and found a 50-pack for 12 bucks. They arrived Friday and I started messing with them. Here’s what I learned messing with them:
1. Some things work with Androids and NFC tags than iPhones for NFC tags. This is where I learned that there are some restrictions on NFC tags due to Apple’s setup of their devices. An example would be that setting an NFC tag for Wi-Fi or Bluetooth connection will work with an Android phone, but the iPhone will not read it. The tools app I used for it will find it with no problem, but it will not find or execute a Wi-Fi or Bluetooth connect on the iPhone.
2. With the above being said, Apple’s shortcuts app shines here. You can set up the shortcut through Apple’s shortcut app and set the NFC tag to execute said shortcut. Think of ideas such as transferring music to a speaker or opening or closing blinds.
3. I had to use a website to make a contact card so that it was iphone friendly. Android i could just setup contact info as a vcard and call it a day.
Overall, it is a fun thing to mess with, and it allowed me to explore some options. I’m currently still exploring ideas and figuring stuff out but I’m happy with the purchase. I currently have our guest wifi at work on one tag, store contact info for work, and two of our speakers we sell have preset pairing with the tags.