12 little secrets you don’t know about the iPhone NFC feature
- iPhone 6 series and newer models are equipped with NFC chip, compatible with NFC AB protocol, support Apple Pay payment, Apple Pay bus and PassKit card simulation;
- The iPhone 7 series and newer models support Core NFC, which has the ability to read NFC tags using the NDEF data format using third-party applications such as NFC Scanner and NXP-NFC Tag Info.
- iPhone XR and newer models support the system to directly read NFC tags using the NDFF data format;
- The iPhone’s NFC function is different from that of Android devices. It is not possible to pair Bluetooth devices, Wi-Fi, and P2P communication through NFC tags. However, after downloading and installing Launch Center Pro 3.0, the iPhone can launch applications near NFC tags.
- If iPhone XR and newer models support low-power auto-shutdown, you can still use the NFC to swipe your bus card or Suica card with Quick Mode enabled in your wallet;
- iPhone 7 series (Japan version), support FeliCa (NFC-F);
- iPhone 8 and newer models support FeliCa. At the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, visitors with new iPhones can easily take public transportation and are better than many Android phones.
- The best NFC bus card experience for the iPhone may be Japan. The iPhone XR and the updated model Sucia card can respond up to 100 ms, while the Beijing City Card will respond slowly, about 500 ms in Japan. The experience of the Sucia card on the iPhone is infinitely close to that of the Suica card;
iOS 11.4 DP1 has temporarily added bus card support to other cities in China, and is now postponed indefinitely;
- There have been internal documents indicating that there is a problem with the iPhone X part of the batch of NFC chips, which may cause the PBOC/Suica card to fail. Apple has not released a large-scale recall plan for this, but the Apple Store may replace the user who owns the batch with Models produced after the 15th week of 2018.
- Core NFC currently strictly restricts third-party applications from using NFC reader mode, but there are very few third-party applications that have access to Secure Enclave directly from Apple-issued NFC certificates.
- WWDC 2019 may announce that Core NFC is more open, but balancing openness and privacy protection is a tricky issue for Apple.
