iOS NFC development

By opening up the Core NFC framework to app developers with the iOS 11.0 update, users of iPhones from the 7th generation onwards now have the option of reading NFC tags for the information they contain and interacting with them, in addition to paying with Apple Pay.

Develop NFC apps for iOS

The requirements for creating apps with the NFC tag reader feature are:

• Xcode 9
• iPhone 7/7+ or higher
• iOS 11.0+
• Enabling the NFC NDEF Reader Function

Apps with the NFC Tag Reading feature have the ability to read NFC tags of type 1-5 and interpret the content. The data contained on them can now be URLs, V-Cards, geo-information, or phone numbers, for example. For more information about standard content in NDEF format just click on Find the right NFC chip..

With the start of an NFC NDEF reader session, iOS now expects an NFC tag to be held up to the NFC reader. This is located at about the same height as the camera on the back of the device. The received data is then passed to the app's own delegate, which processes the received data further and handles errors if necessary.

More detailed descriptions and instructions for developing NFC apps for iOS 11 can be found from Apple's Developer Documentation or from github. As yet, the Core NFC Framework's features are limited in comparison. Use cases that exceed the reading of NFC tags and the use of Apple Pay are not yet possible. For example, it is not yet possible to write tags or establish peer-to-peer connections between iPhones or other devices via NFC. Therefore, devices from other manufacturers are still required for writing NFC tags. You can find out more about this under the menu item Write and read NFC tags.

NFC21-Reader App

From now on our free NFC-Reader App is available for download. More information and a short video about the app can be found under the menu item NFC21-Reader for iOS or directly on iTunes under the following link NFC21-Reader.

NFC21 Tools App

With our free app NFC21 Tools it is possible to write and read all common NFC tags. In our article we explain step by step how each data type can be easily stored on the NFC tag.