NFC and Blackberry OS

Since August 2011 Research in Motion (RIM) supports Near Field Communication (NFC) with the BlackBerry OS 7.1. Thus, RIM took a bit longer to implement NFC functionality in BlackBerry Phones, but consequently equipped all BlackBerry OS 7.1 models with NFC chips. NFC-enabled BlackBerry Phones are for example BlackBerry Bold 9900/9930/9790, BlackBerry Curve 9360/9380 and the BlackBerry Torch 9860. Furthermore, the "BlackBerry Tag" allows to share content between two BlackBerry devices easily and to read passive NFC tags. The current BlackBerry smartphones are equipped with Android, in which the NFC function has been integrated for some time.

Share content between devices

Transferring content between two devices using NFC works in exactly the same way with BlackBerry as it does with Android. First, the content to be shared is selected on the sending device and then transferred contactlessly via NFC by holding the two devices close together.

It can be assumed that this feature (Android Beam) will disappear, as it has on established Android smartphones (e.g., Samsung), and be replaced by modern features such as FastShare.

Compatibility of NFC tags with BlackBerry

Most chips in our NFC tags are compatible with BlackBerry Tag. However, an important exception is the Mifare Classik 1K. Therefore, we recommend to read our product descriptions carefully when purchasing NFC tags for your BlackBerry. We always indicate in our product description if the built-in NFC chip is compatible with all common NFC-enabled smartphones or not.

Outlook

With the change of the standard operating system on BlackBerry devices to Android, the NFC function is now standard. In 2015, BlackBerry equipped its own smartphone with the Android operating system. The first device to mention here is the BlackBerry Priv (Android 6.0). The following BlackBerry smartphones are also equipped with Android. The NFC function in particular is now an integral part of the device and, as with other Android smartphones, can be activated or deactivated and used via the usual settings. In 2016, BlackBerry completely discontinued its own smartphone production and has since had its smartphones manufactured by the Chinese manufacturer TCL. However, the BlackBerry brand name remains, and Android is used as the operating system. BlackBerry is thus increasingly concentrating on software and, above all, security solutions, and is no longer focusing on smartphone operating systems such as the OS BlackBerry 10.