Start music playback via a Bluetooth box with NFC
This How2 shows how an NFC chip can be used to automatically play music on a Bluetooth box. To do this, the smartphone only needs to be held against the NFC chip.
This way you can play the playlist with your favourite children's songs in the children's room as soon as you enter and in the car it is enough to simply place the phone on the place with the NFC chip. In the kitchen, too, it can be an advantage to play music simply by touching the NFC chip, just like in the living room when you want to start your favourite music quickly and easily.
Content:
- Setting up an initial Bluetooth connection
- Check Bluetooth connection
- Enable Bluetooth by default
- Select playback device
- Select Playlist
- Start and stop playback automatically
- Testing and saving automation
Setting up an initial Bluetooth connection
The smartphone must have been connected to the Blueooth speaker at least once before. If the smartphone has been connected to the Bluetooth box before, you can skip this step and go directly to the next step "Check Bluetooth connection"!
To connect the iPhone with the box, we tap on the home screen on the app Settings → Bluetooth. Here we activate Bluetooth.
Afterwards, new Bluetooth devices will be displayed under Devices. In our example, our Bluetooth box is called SoundCore mini - we select it by tapping it.
If this is successful, the music box appears under My Devices as connected. The connection was successfully established.
Note: Many Bluetooth devices/music boxes must be set to Bluetooth search mode before the first connection is made. This mode can be accessed differently depending on the manufacturer. Usually there is a button with a Bluetooth symbol on the box, or a function key that must be pressed for a long time. The device then sends a visual or audible signal that new connections can be established.
It is even easier with Bluetooth boxes with an integrated NFC chip. These can be coupled directly by scanning the NFC chip.
Check Bluetooth connection
We want to check if the Bluetooth Box is connected to the iPhone. To do this, we activate the control center by wiping the upper right edge of the screen downwards. Then we tap the blue Bluetooth icon with a force touch (press and hold) so that we can see the categories Flight Mode, Mobile Data, WLAN, Bluetooth, Airdrop and Personal Hotspot.
With another Force Touch we tap the blue Bluetooth icon again. Now a list of Bluetooth devices appears. If our Bluetooth box SoundCore mini is not yet connected, tap it to connect it.
Enable Bluetooth by default
To play a playlist from Apple Music automatically, we open the App Shortcuts on the Home screen, select the Automation tab and then tap + in the upper right corner of the screen. Through Create Personal Automation → NFC , we can scan and name our NFC tag (see detailed instructions in the chapter Basics: Programming iPhone shortcuts and triggering them with an NFC tag).
After tapping Next, we can now add our desired actions by clicking Add Action. In the search bar at the top we enter blue as a keyword and select Configure Bluetooth.
We get the desired action. Bluetooth On is activated by default. This means that the Bluetooth function is switched on as desired when the automation is activated.
Select playback device
Next, we want to make sure that our "SoundCore mini" jukebox is actually always used as the playback medium when automation is activated.
To do this, we tap the + symbol and then enter playback in the search bar at the top. We select Set Playback Destination.
We get another action entry Set iPhone as playback destination. By tapping iPhone we get a menu where we select SoundCore mini.
Select Playlist
The next step is to select a specific playlist from Apple Music for playback. To do this, we tap the + symbol again, enter Playlist in the upper search bar and select Get Playlist.
We get an action with the title Get title in playlist. Here we tap on the weak blue word Playlist. We get a list of our playlists, in our case we select our example Playlist Bluetooth Music.
Start and stop playback automatically
In the final step we tap on the round + symbol to add a final step to the action chain.
In the upper search bar we typeplayback again. This time we select the Play/Pause list entry.
We see the lowest action Now playing play with Play/Stop on iPhone. When we tap Play/Stop, we have the option to select Play or Pause.
In our example we use the action as it is created by default. This means that playback will start when we touch the NFC chip. If the iPhone comes in contact with the same NFC chip, the current playback is paused.
Testing and saving automation
You can test the automation by tapping on the ► symbol in the lower right-hand corner of the screen. Pressing the ► symbol simulates contact with our NFC chip BluetoothPlay.
After successful testing, tap Next in the top right-hand corner, then deactivate Ask Before Running, so that the desired automation is started immediately by contact with the BluetoothPlay NFC tag.
We end the process with Done.
Summary
Through contact with our NFC chip BluetoothPlay, the Apple Music Playlist Bluetooth music is now automatically played via our example Bluetooth Box SoundCore mini.
In everyday life there are many situations in which the hands must be free quickly. Prime examples are driving a car or situations under time pressure. By simply placing the smartphone on an NFC chip, the device no longer needs to be operated, except for unlocking. The playlist is started without having to deal further with the smartphone and possible messages or to-do's.
In our follow-up article Creating Complex Automation Chains and Triggering with NFC we explain by means of another, more complex example how individual NFC automations can be created.
Associated operating systems
iOSFirst published: 25.07.2023 / Updated: 03.04.2024 2023-07-25 2024-04-03