Reading NFC Tags with iPhone 6 iOS 8

Question

Now that Apple just announced the iPhone 6 will have an NFC chip  does anyone know if iOS 8 will enable reading detecting RFID tags for the iPhone 6 device  Anyone have any details to share on this

User · Answer

At the moment  Apple has not opened any access to the embedded NFC chip to developers as suggested by many articles such as these ones     Apple Cripples NFC in iPhone 6  6  With Developer Ban from Daily Tech Apple Restricting Use of NFC Antenna in iPhone 6 and 6 Plus to Apple Pay from Mac Rumors Apple confirms iPhone 6 NFC chip is only for Apple Pay at launch from Cult of Mac Apple initially restricts iPhone 6  iPhone 6 Plus NFC chip to Apple Pay from Tech Times   The list goes on  The main reason seems  like lots the other hardware features added to the iPhone in the past  that Apple wants to ensure the security of such technology before releasing any API for developers to let them do whatever they want  So at first  they will use it internally for their needs only  such as Apple Pay at launch time        At the moment  there isn t any open access to the NFC controller     said RapidNFC  a provider of NFC tags   There are currently no NFC   APIs in the iOS 8 GM SDK     But eventually  I think we can all agree that they will develop such API  it s only a matter of time

User · Answer

The iPhone6 6s 6  are NOT designed to read passive NFC tags  aka Discovery Mode   There s a lot of misinformation on this topic  so I thought to provide some tangible info for developers to consider  The lack of NFC tag read support is not because of software but because of hardware  To understand why  you need to understand how NFC works  NFC works by way of Load Modulation  That means that the interrogator  PCD  emits a carrier magnetic field that energizes the passive target  PICC   With the potential generated by this carrier field  the target then is able to demodulate data coming from the interrogator and respond by modulating data over top of this very same field  The key here is that the target never creates a field of its own    If you look at the iPhone6 teardown and parts list you will see the presence of a very small NFC loop antenna as well as the use of the AS3923 booster IC  This design was intended for custom microSD or SIM cards to enable mobile phones of old to do payments  This is the type of application where the mobile phone presents a Card Emulated credential to a high power contactless POS terminal  The POS terminal acts as the reader  energizing the iPhone6 with help from the AS3923 chip  The AS3923 block diagram clearly shows how the RX and TX modulation is boosted from a signal presented by a reader device  In other words the iPhone6 is not meant to provide a field  only to react to one  That s why it s design is only meant for NFC Card Emulation and perhaps Peer-2-Peer  but definitely not tag Discovery     There are some alternatives to achieving tag Discovery with an iPhone6 using HW accessories  I talk about these integrations and how developers can architect solutions in this blog post  Our low power reader designs open interesting opportunities for mobile engagement that few developers are thinking about    Disclosure  I m the founder of Flomio  Inc   a TechStars company that delivers proximity ID hardware  software  and services for applications ranging from access control to payments   Update  This rumor  if true  would open up the possibility for the iPhone to practically support NFC tag Discovery mode  An all glass design would not interfere with the NFC antenna as does the metal back of the current iPhone  We ve attempted this design approach --albeit with cheaper materials-- on some of our custom reader designs with success so looking forward to this improvement    Update  iOS11 has announced support for  NFC reader mode  for iPhone7 7   Details here  API only supports reading NDEF messages  no ISO7816 APDUs  while an app is in the foreground  no background detection   Due out in the Fall  2017    check the screenshot from WWDC keynote

User · Answer

The only information currently available is that Apple Pay will be available in ios8  but that doesn t shed any light on whether RFID tags or rather NFC tags specifically will be able to be detected read   IMO it would be a shortsighted move not to allow that possibility  but really the money is in Apple Pay  not necessarily in allowing developers access to those features - we ve seen it before with tethering  Bluetooth SPP  and diminished access to certain functions      but then again  it s been about 5 hours since the first announcement

User · Answer

I think it will be sometime before we get to see access to the NFC as the pure security side of it like for example being able to walk past somebody brush past them and  amp  get your phone to the zap the card details or simply Wave your phone over someone s wallet which They left on the desk   I think the first step is for Apple to talk to banks and find more ways of securing cards and NFC before This will be allowed

User · Answer

The ability to read an NFC tag has been added to iOS 11 which only support iPhone 7 and 7 plus   As a test drive I made this repo  First  We need to initiate NFCNDEFReaderSession class   var session  NFCNDEFReaderSession   session   NFCNDEFReaderSession delegate  self  queue  nil  invalidateAfterFirstRead  false    Then we need to start the session by   session  begin     and when done   session  invalidate     The delegate  which self should implement  has basically two functions   func readerSession   session  NFCNDEFReaderSession  didDetectNDEFs messages   NFCNDEFMessage   func readerSession   session  NFCNDEFReaderSession  didInvalidateWithError error  Error    here is my reference Apple docs

User · Answer

From digging into the iOS 8 docs that are available as of Sept 9th 3 30pm there is no mention of developer access to the NFC controller to perform any NFC operations  that includes reading tags  writing tags  pairing  payments  tag emulation    Given its an NXP controller the hardware has the capability to perform these features  They did mention a 3rd party app for the watch that allowed a hotel guest to open their room door with NFC  This is a classic use case for NFC and gives some indication that the NFC controller will be open to developers at some point  Remember  the watch is not supposed to be released until Q1 2015  So for now I d say it s closed but will be open soon  Given the  newness  of contactless payments for the general US consumer and the recent security breaches its not surprising Apple wants to keep this closed for a while   Disclosure  Im the CEO of GoToTags  an NFC company with obvious vested interest in Apple opening up NFC to developers   --- Correction  amp  Update ---  The hotel app actually uses Bluetooth  not NFC  NFC is still often used for door unlocking  just not in this one example  NFC could be used if the watch has an open NFC controller   I do know that Apple is aware of all of this and is discussing this with their top developers and stakeholders  There has already been massive negative push back on the lack of support for reading tags  As often the case in the past  I expect Apple to eventually open this up to developers for non-payment related functionality  reading tags  pairing   I do not think Apple will ever allow other wallets though  File sharing will likely be left to AirDrop as well   --- Update on March 23rd 2016 ---  I am continually asked for updates about this topic  often with people referencing this post  With Apple releasing the iPhone SE  many are again asking why Apple has not supported tag reading yet  In summary Apple is more focused on Apple Pay succeeding than the other use cases for NFC for now  Apple could make a lot of money from Apple Pay  and has less to make from the other uses for NFC  Apple will likely open up NFC tag reading when they feel that consumer trust and security with NFC and Apple Pay is such that it wont put Apple Pay at risk  Further information here   --- Update on May 24th 2017 ---  A developer in Greece has hacked the iPhone 6s to get it to read NFC tags via the NFC private frameworks  more info  amp  video  While this isn t a long term solution  it provides some guidance on some outstanding question  Is there enough power in the iPhone s NFC controller to power an NFC tag  Looks like the answer is yes  From initial testing the range is a few cm  which isn t too bad  It might also be the power is tunable  this is being investigated at this time  The implications of this are significant  If the older model phones do have enough RF power for tag reading writing  then when Apple does open up the SDK it means there will be 100Ms of iPhones that can read NFC tags  vs the case where only the new iPhones could

User · Answer

At the moment  there isn t any open access to the NFC controller  There are currently no NFC APIs in the iOS 8 GM SDK - which would indicate that the NFC capability will be restricted to Apple Pay at launch  This is our understanding    Clearly  the NXP chip inside the iPhone 6 is likely to be able to do more so this doesn t mean that additional features  pairing  tag scanning encoding  will not be added for release or in the near future

[ios] Reading NFC Tags with iPhone 6 / iOS 8

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