What can we do with NFC with WP8 as of now?

[david90531]

I'm not too familiar with the NFC functionalities. I know it allows you to tap and send but when I tried to do that with my Android tablet with the "Bump" app, it wouldn't send or receive anything.
Someone please shine some lights on how to utilize the NFC functions.

Thanks in advance.

 

[VisceralMonkey]

Not much apparently, especially in the US. I don't think you'll get much use, if any, out of this functionality with this phone, maybe a phone in a few generations.

 

[Josh Mackey]

I'm not too familiar with the NFC functionalities. I know it allows you to tap and send but when I tried to do that with my Android tablet with the "Bump" app, it wouldn't send or receive anything.
Someone please shine some lights on how to utilize the NFC functions.

Thanks in advance.

NFC on its own is capable of transferring small amounts of data at around 53KB/s. This type of data transfer is universal and can be read on any device that supports NFC.

What this means for you is that you can transfer text and URLs to your android device.

In order to transfer larger amounts of data such as pictures or other binary data, NFC bootstraps a data connection over bluetooth or wifi. This type of connection is WP8 only.

 

[david90531]

I see, thanks for the answers! Hopefully more features will come in the future

 

[pavvento]

I think this is definitely something that will be expanded upon in future OS releases. While current functionality is extremely limited I'm glad it was still included so that the only changes that need to happen are with the OS and not the hardware.

 

[Josh Mackey]

I think this is definitely something that will be expanded upon in future OS releases. While current functionality is extremely limited I'm glad it was still included so that the only changes that need to happen are with the OS and not the hardware.

Limited in what way?

Cross platform communication? That would require cooperation from Google and Apple (Once an iPhone actually gets an NFC chip) to go anywhere.
Apps? The API is there, people just need to take advantage of it.
Payment? Again, API is there, the app just needs to be developed by Visa/Mastercard/etc...

 

[Tempest790]

I had some business cards made up with NFC. They're plastic with my contact info on it, a MS Tag in the lower right corner for people to scan, and if they have NFC, they can tap and send. They cost about a $1.60 apiece with a 10 card minimum. I ordered 10 and had them left unlocked. I was able to reprogram it with NFC Interactor and NFC Tag Away. Works great! Plus, they look very professional. Granted, I won't be handing these out like candy, but if you need to make a good impression, this is the way to go. I blew people away at work showing what I can do with my Lumia and that NFC. For iPhone users, they can just use their camera to scan the tag.

 

[rareohs]

I had some business cards made up with NFC. They're plastic with my contact info on it, a MS Tag in the lower right corner for people to scan, and if they have NFC, they can tap and send. They cost about a $1.60 apiece with a 10 card minimum. I ordered 10 and had them left unlocked. I was able to reprogram it with NFC Interactor and NFC Tag Away. Works great! Plus, they look very professional. Granted, I won't be handing these out like candy, but if you need to make a good impression, this is the way to go. I blew people away at work showing what I can do with my Lumia and that NFC. For iPhone users, they can just use their camera to scan the tag.

that sounds badass. where did you get those made?

 

[casab1anca]

Between WP8 and Android, you can currently only share links and contacts.
Between two WP8 devices, you can share a lot more, including pictures, music and apps.
My personal favourites are sharing contacts and apps.

 

[Tempest790]

that sounds badass. where did you get those made?

I went to NFC Tags, Readers and Software | BUYNFCTAGS.COM
I already had a design made up in Illustrator, so I just sent them that. The plastic cards only cost a bit more than the regular paper ones, so I chose the plastic. Great customer service from them. They stayed in contact all weekend while we tweaked the design. Note: the plastic cards are slightly different dimensions than the regular business cards. They print full color front and for larger orders they will print black and white (QR Codes for example) back or even color back. They also have frosted cards, wrist bands, and even a coaster with NFC chips.

You can order the NFC chip inside in various sizes from a few bytes to over 8K. I only needed the small one since it's actually just a URL that takes them to my vCard located on my Microsoft Tag website. The link works with all phones, and it will immediately prompt them to save your info. You can alternately store your actual info on the card by getting a larger memory card too. The NFC can be locked or left open. I left mine open to see if I could change the info on the card, and yes it works very easy. After I was finished playing around with it, I changed it back to the original URL.

The fun part was watching no less than 3 different iPhone owners pull out there phone and ask "can I do that with mine?!" Sorry, but you'll have to download an app and scan the tag I put on the card instead (that works great too).

 

[Coolknight1968]

We can drain the battery... No but once fixed in Europe many stores will offer NFC solutions for payment in 2013.

 

[killzone killzo]

You can think of NFC as a WiFi or Bluetooth connection that is established between two NFC enabled devices or a device and NFC "tag" much quicker than bluetooth or wifi. In fact it takes less than half a second for two NFC connections to be established. Moreover, where bluetooth connections require user input to be established, NFC connections are established automatically as soon as the two devices are brought close together (of course NFC has to be turned on in the settings). For this reason, and for security purposes, the range is shorter and data rate transfer is signifcantly less than bluetooth. However, NFC supposedly consumes less power than the standard bluetooth. Typical applications (in addition to what was mentioned above) include: using your phone as a chubb card/ticket/credit card to access hotel rooms, buildings, Metro station, etc. Of course, this means that the infrastructure required to render NFC practical still needs to be established.

 

[xFalk]

My wife has a Samsung Galaxy SIII with NFC. While my 822 can see her phone and connect, it only does so for maybe a second or two and then disconnects. If I'm ever able to figure out how to keep the two devices connected, is it true that we would only be able to share links and contact and nothing else? Why is that? You would think NFC is NFC.

 

[pavvento]

Limited in what way?

Cross platform communication? That would require cooperation from Google and Apple (Once an iPhone actually gets an NFC chip) to go anywhere.
Apps? The API is there, people just need to take advantage of it.
Payment? Again, API is there, the app just needs to be developed by Visa/Mastercard/etc...

Limited in the control of OS level operations such as turning radios on/off or altering settings. I was expecting a wide array of abilities- tap NFC in my living room and it turns on wi-fi turns off work email and puts the ringer on loud. This level of integration would be a great step.

 

[ARVI_SD]

i used couple of times to transfer the pics to another L920 and share contacts.

 

[ynight]

I went to NFC Tags, Readers and Software | BUYNFCTAGS.COM
I already had a design made up in Illustrator, so I just sent them that. The plastic cards only cost a bit more than the regular paper ones, so I chose the plastic. Great customer service from them. They stayed in contact all weekend while we tweaked the design. Note: the plastic cards are slightly different dimensions than the regular business cards. They print full color front and for larger orders they will print black and white (QR Codes for example) back or even color back. They also have frosted cards, wrist bands, and even a coaster with NFC chips.

You can order the NFC chip inside in various sizes from a few bytes to over 8K. I only needed the small one since it's actually just a URL that takes them to my vCard located on my Microsoft Tag website. The link works with all phones, and it will immediately prompt them to save your info. You can alternately store your actual info on the card by getting a larger memory card too. The NFC can be locked or left open. I left mine open to see if I could change the info on the card, and yes it works very easy. After I was finished playing around with it, I changed it back to the original URL.

The fun part was watching no less than 3 different iPhone owners pull out there phone and ask "can I do that with mine?!" Sorry, but you'll have to download an app and scan the tag I put on the card instead (that works great too).

Man I'll buy you dinner if you make a video on how you did those things you said before, i'm a little lost to be honest, but it seems to be really cool

 

[Josh Mackey]

You can think of NFC as a WiFi or Bluetooth connection that is established between two NFC enabled devices or a device and NFC "tag" much quicker than bluetooth or wifi. In fact it takes less than half a second for two NFC connections to be established. Moreover, where bluetooth connections require user input to be established, NFC connections are established automatically as soon as the two devices are brought close together (of course NFC has to be turned on in the settings). For this reason, and for security purposes, the range is shorter and data rate transfer is signifcantly less than bluetooth. However, NFC supposedly consumes less power than the standard bluetooth. Typical applications (in addition to what was mentioned above) include: using your phone as a chubb card/ticket/credit card to access hotel rooms, buildings, Metro station, etc. Of course, this means that the infrastructure required to render NFC practical still needs to be established.

That's half true. When transferring anything larger than a few lines of text, NFC bootstraps a Wifi or bluetooth connection between devices.

That bootstrapping is also the reason why you can only share simple things between platforms, only WP8 supports the specific handshake needed.

 

[gravage]

Get a Nokia 360 BT speaker or any of their NFC-enabled headphones. Start music on your phone, tap it to the speaker/headphones. It'll blow your mind.

If you have the right peripherals to take advantage of it, NFC is the bomb. If you don't, it's more of a novelty.

 

[jdandison]

I also understand we'll need special secure SIMs from ATT for wallet in the states, but rumor has it it'll be 2013.

 

[Tempest790]

Man I'll buy you dinner if you make a video on how you did those things you said before, i'm a little lost to be honest, but it seems to be really cool

I didn't really have time to make a video, but I'll tell you step by step how I set everything up.


First, you will need to create a business card tag using Microsoft's Tag website at 2D Barcodes and Mobile Tagging | Microsoft Tag . You can log in and set up your information. Create a new tag and select vCard business information and then enter manually all the information you want entered. For my example, I entered a name, phone numbers, email, address, fax number, address, etc. It will then give you the option to download the tag in MS Tag format (the color one), QR Code (black and white dot-matrix looking), a custom tag (useful for putting images in the color tag), or an NFC URL (I didn't use this one, as it didn't quite work for me on the phone). You can then download your tag in several formats, but I'd recommend PNG or JPEG since they are the most compatible. You can then input that tag into a business card design software. I used Adobe Illustrator, but Microsoft Publisher works great too, and you can even use Word if necessary.

I made my own NFC looking logo based off of some I've seen on the internet. The dimensions of the plastic card are slightly different than the business card (86mmx54mm vs 3.5x2inches) so keep that in mind when designing your card.

You can then send the completed card to NFC Tags, Readers and Software | BUYNFCTAGS.COM as a PDF, AI or EPS file and they can work with it from there. They will send you an image for you to proof before they actually print the cards. Since my card is actually just the URL to my vCard, I purchased the smallest memory NFC card. You can get the URL by selecting the NFC URL option when downloading your tag. That URL is actually a redirect and may not always work, so I would enter it into your computer web browser, allow the redirect, and then copy the full URL. In my example it's: John Q Citizen (http://exp.tag.microsoft.com/experiences/5994334). The original NFC URL was John Q Citizen (http://tagr.com/t/V37bVn).

BuyNFCtags will allow you to order the card locked or unlocked. Specify unlock if you want to reprogram the card using your phone. They have an Excel template you can download to put your information in (in this case the URL). I downloaded both NFC Interactor and NFC Tag Away for WP8 and both of them work great. It will even tell you how much room is available on the NFC chip.

Once ordered, they shipped quickly, and I had them in a couple of days. They really look cool, and it's fun watching people get so amazed what you can do with our new phones.

Here's an example that's similar to my design:



Let me know if you have any other questions.