NFC becomes much more powerful in iOS 13 – TechCrunch



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NFC – technology that powers Apple Pay and other smart features for iOS applications, such as Launch Center Pro tappable stickers – is undergoing a major upgrade with the launch of iOS 13, which should appear this fall. Instead of allowing only iPhone applications to read NFC tags, applications will be able to write directly to blank tags and interact with tags via native protocols. Apple told attendees at the global developer conference last week, including the ability to create apps to read passports and contactless smart cards and interact with NFC-enabled hardware.

We've already seen the potential of NFC technology, which goes beyond an easier way to perform point-of-sale audits in a traditional retail environment, like Apple Pay.

For example, Apple and Google recently announced support for contactless payments enabled by Apple Pay and Google Pay for the New York subway. Portland offers something similar, as do many other international cities.

With updates to the basic NFC framework, the NFC capabilities of the iPhone will become even more powerful.

With iOS 13 (on iPhone 7 and above), users will be able to read a range of contactless smart cards and tags, including NFC-enabled passports and other government credentials.

There are already ongoing solutions that will take advantage of this new feature.

For example, Engadget Japan and Nikkei announced that the Japanese government would add support for playing NFC tags to Japan's national identity card (individual number card) when launching iOS 13 later this year.

The news was confirmed by the Japanese government via a tweet from a government DSI advisor:

In addition, ReadID's NFC passport reader application will now work on the iPhone following iOS 13 updates.

"This announcement means that ReadID will also work on iPhones, using the built-in internal NFC feature," the company said in a blog post.

"Needless to say, we are very excited about this. We are confident that this will have a major impact on online use cases such as mobile integration for banks, especially for countries where the penetration rate of the iPhone is high " announced the statement.

Beyond ID scanning, iOS applications will be able to write to NFC tags (NDEF writing), and even lock the tag so that it can no longer be written, if the developer wants.

And now, the basic NFC framework will support reading and writing labels in a variety of formats, including not only NDEF NFC tags (for NDEF labels as they are available today), but also Mifare, FeliCa, ISO 7816 (for example, for passports) and ISO 15693.

This means that NFC will work in more places with more types of tags than those available today.

Above Image Credit: Ata Distance, which covers Apple Pay and contactless news

Apple unveiled some of its NFC projects by announcing support for stickers and NFC tags that could trigger Apple Pay payments at the Transact conference in Las Vegas just before WWDC.

Bird (scooters), Bonobos (retailer) and PayByPhone (parking meters) have announced their intention to support this feature, which allows for NFC transactions without terminal or vendor special application.

This is possible thanks to new support for Value Added Service (VAS) tags, which also support loyalty registration with merchants. In this regard, Apple has stated that Dairy Queen, Dave & Buster's and Caribou Coffee will be using NFC tags later this year that make it easier for customers to sign up for loyalty programs.

Panera Bread, Yogurtland and Jimmy John's Gourmet sandwiches will also be tested.

At Apple's WWDC, the company has demonstrated the extensive capabilities of NFC technology in a realistic scenario.

As an example of NFC in action on an iOS 13 device, the company showed how a merchant could use NFC tags displaying a description of the product after the customer has scanned it, as well as another NFC tag that could offer to the customer a coupon for his product. purchase, once digitized.

Launch Center Pro developer David Barnard, who sold pre-encoded and locked NFC tags to no longer use other apps than his own, is unloading an old inventory for iOS 13. developer tweeted that his application will soon be able to write on blank NFC stickers that you can buy in bulk on Amazon.

In addition, Apple's Siri Shortcuts app upgrade allows users to launch an action or even a multi-step workflow just by scanning an NFC tag.

The developers have requested more NFC capabilities for a while, and Apple has delivered them. Consumers may not understand the underlying technology or know how it is called. However, they will benefit from the "tap to interact" feature thanks to the widespread adoption of Apple Pay, which taught them the behavior.

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