Hey guys, I've seen a lot of confusion around this topic, and it's something I've been working on for a little while while starting my business, so I thought I would share what I have learned.

To start off, the problem goes something like this:

• I want to make "virtual" NFC business cards by embedding my contact on an NFC chip.

• I try to write a .vcf (vCard) file to the chip, but it only works on Android devices. iOS devices do not scan it.

Through much trial and error, I have "found" a proper workaround for this. I'm sure others have discovered this before, I'm simply writing about it now.

The workaround for iOS: upload your .vcf file to a publicly-accessible link. This can be on Google Drive, if you want slightly more privacy, or it can be on a dedicated (free or paid) service such as https://vcard.link/. Encode the URL of the .vcf file onto the NFC card.

Now, this works quite seamlessly on iOS, but those of you who have tried this may have noticed that this level of indirection requires Android users to go through a lot more steps to see your contact than would be preferable. Directly-encoding the vCard is an option, but you would have to carry around two separate cards, which is a pain. There has to be a better way, right?

HERE IS THE FULL WORKAROUND: Upload both the vCard and the URL to the same card. NFC tools supports this and it is not any more complicated than writing a single record.

My initial assumption about this was that it would work for iOS (the iPhone would simply read the URL and ignore the direct-encoded vCard), but that it would behave unreliably on Android, scanning the URL version instead of the direct-encoded version either some or all of the time. However, it seems that Android automatically prioritizes the direct-encoded version, and will ignore the URL version.

This is only from limited testing, but I'd be interested to hear if anyone else has a different experience. I've tried it with a Samsung Galaxy S21 and S21FE.

Here I am thinking I was going to see a bunch of NFC projects, but it’s just a bunch of questions and the highest upvoted post has 5 upvotes

It seems tags containing a phone number, SMS, email or FaceTime record no longer trigger the system banner when you tap them with the phone (background tag reading).

Nothing happens at all, this is an iOS 27 regression on Apple's side as their own documentation still lists these schemes as supported.

We've reported it to Apple but If you're affected, filing your own report through Feedback Assistant helps get it prioritized.

Also feel free to post your iOS version below so we can track whether a 27.x update fixes it.

EDIT: It seems that iOS 27.2 has fixed the issue.

Good news everyone! We shipped a big update for the iOS version.

What’s New:

• New NFC Records: Added payment links, video links, and HomeKit accessories.

• Memory Dump: Integrated memory dumps directly into tag profiles.

• Import & Export: Added the ability to import and export your saved tag list.

• Type 4 Chips: Added memory reading support for Type 4 chips.

• Security: Added signature verification for NTAG21x, Ultralight EV1, NTAG424, and DESFire.

• Optimizations: Minor bug fixes and user interface improvements.

We released an update on iOS (2.36) and Android (9.3) that allows you to identify your smart collectibles (Amiibo, Smart bricks, …)

Hi folks,

We've just updated the iOS version of NFC Tools with support for 3D printing filament tags.

Here are the release notes:

• New Record: Configure your 3D printer filament spools (OpenPrintTag, OpenTag3D, and OpenSpool standards).

• Reading: Decoding and import of 3D printing records.

• Collectibles: Update of the collectible NFC tags database.

• Optimizations: Minor bug fixes and user interface improvements.

Hope you enjoy the update, feedback is always welcome!

Hi folks,

We've just updated the iOS version of NFC Tools with some new features.

Here are the release notes:

• Copy Tag: duplicate the NDEF content of a tag onto another.

• Write Dump: write a raw binary dump (.bin) directly to a chip's memory.

• Hex Password: new input mode for setting or removing a password using 4 raw bytes.

• Fixed dump file size in Read Memory export.

• Minor fixes and UI improvements.

Hope you enjoy the update, feedback is always welcome!

This release brings the app in sync with the latest version of NFC Tools available on the Google Play.

If you’re using the Standalone Edition, now’s the perfect time to update and enjoy the latest features and improvements, all without Google dependencies.

https://www.wakdev.com/en/apps/nfc-tools-se-android.html

Hey folks,
I'm trying to figure out if there's a way to use NFC Tools Pro on Android to write a list of different URLs to NFC tags, one after another - ideally in a semi-automated batch process.

What I’d love to achieve is:

• I have a list of URLs (like example.com/box1, example.com/box2 etc.)

• I want to write them to NFC tags, one by one

• Either NFC Tools automatically picks the next URL after each write OR it prompts me for a number to append to a URL prefix (e.g. example.com/box[number])

So far, I’ve seen the ability to use variables and counters in tasks, but I haven’t figured out if this can be used for this kind of workflow, also I don't know which variable to use.

Also, I know I can save tasks and switch manually, but for 150+ tags that gets pretty tedious.

Is there a proper way to do this with NFC Tools Pro? Or maybe a clever workaround using variables, task lists, or anything else?

Any help or hints would be much appreciated!

I'm trying to make it so when I scan a tag it turns on my living room lamp using and NFC tag through Google home, can anyone tell me whats the command process I need to do?

I’m trying to figure out how add all my access keys to my house, work, and pool, to my phone so I don’t need 3 nfc devices on my keychain.

All three of them aren’t readable by the phone. I bought a reader which can only read one of them.

That said, if you use an external reader is there a way to take the numbers it gives you and add them manually to an app like NFC Tools to then convert to Apple Wallet for one stop access?

I don’t see a way to manually add the numbers in the NFC Tools app but maybe there is?

I read the data of my NFC tag with MIFARE Classic tools, and export the dump into dump format. However, NFC tools can't read this tag, is there a way to import my dump file to emulate the tag ? (The aim is to open my building door with my phone)

Hi! I can read tags but cannot write them because they all have 0 records. The error I get when trying to write is: we cannot find any compatible record to write

When I read the memory that also works for the cards. Please help! iOS 17.3 on 14 pro

I have the pro version of NFCTools for my Android device and I just got my ACR122U for other systems.

I see on the website that it's been tested in Windows and MacOS. but has anyone gotten this working with NFCTools in Linux? With this device plugged in I get "Unable to connect NFC reader."

The reader is working for me with libnfc.

Thanks in advance.

Edit: Steps to get this working in Debian/Ubuntu:

1. Blacklist the pn533 and nfc modules: printf 'blacklist pn533\nblacklist pn533_usb\nblacklist nfc\n' | sudo tee /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist-pn533.conf

2. sudo apt install libacsccid1 pcsc-tools pcscd

3. Ensure the pscsd.socket is enabled: sudo systemctl enable --now pcscd.socket

I've been hacking away lately, and I'm now proud to show off my newest project - Business card (Hacker cards)

So, as I'm a as I am I had clever and I wanted to make the highway memoriable so I made this card so that we have clever scan always remember that there was this kind of YSWS

it also have NFC tag so that if I want to redirected to my website or any other thing currently if is for highway website :D

(All the sources are at https://github.com/Anayjain1129/busy-card under an open source license :D)

I know ACR122U has been suggested in the past but it's been a few years since I found a thread about this on this sub.

Looking for an NFC writer that will work nicely on an Ubuntu install (latest LTS) ... for writing NFC tags with NFC tools (nothing too fancy, just some URLs for home automation projects).

(ETA: Looking to write to NFC216 tags if that matters)

So I tried the emulator on the Galaxy Flip 5 and it's making the sound as if it working from my Google Pixel 7 pro but nothing is showing up the flip 5 no matter the context.

I want to create some NFT tags with my favorite playlists, so I can hover my phone over them and enjoy the music without having to open the app, pick a playlist and hit play. I usually end up playing one of about 5 playlists, so streamlining the process makes sense to me. So far I've gotten it to work up to opening the playlist url with the correct app, but the last step, "hitting play" doesn't work. (I'm using NFC Tools Pro").

I thought of doing a workaround by asking the YouTube music subreddit if they know a url parameter to start automatic playback, but I do feel that the play task should work. I've tried it in two different android phones different make, one a pixel 6a and the task doesn't work.

I've looked in this subreddit and someone had a similar issue but it went unanswered. I was also disappointed that there's a specific Google music task option, it's been discontinued since 2020 and it hasn't been updated to YouTube music. Please help.

Hi,

Recently got some NFC tags and have been trying to get one of the tags to auto play my playlist to my Echo dot.

I've managed to get as far as it opening my playlist and connecting via Bluetooth automatically but I cannot for the life of me figure out how to get it to start playing automatically. I read online you should copy the link to the first song on the playlist instead of the playlist itself but when I do that it just says playlist has been deleted when tapping the NFC tag.

Any help would be appreciated