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Why Android & IOS11 cannot communicate via NFC


Currently using React Native and attempting to use react-native-nfc-ios and react-native-nfc so I can have cross-device communication between ios and Android. I'm finding that they cannot communicate, however I think it's due to a broader issue (as other existing apps also don't work).

If I download a NFC reader app on iPhone 7, and an NFC writer app on Android they cannot communicate. Why is this?

Instructions to Duplicate

  1. Turn on NFC Reader on iPhone 7
  2. Put some arbitrary data in NFC write mode on Android
  3. Bringing devices together has no effect.

Not understanding the intricacies of NFC, it's hard for me as a casual programmer to understand what the actual problem is.

I understand that IOS11 on iPhone 7 (plus) supports NFC read, and generally speaking there are card emulation, peer to peer, and read write modes.


Solution

  • The reason is because Apple's iOS 11 update only allows reading from NFC tags (writing is only permitted for Apple Pay). At the moment, their software does not share the same enjoyment afforded by Android phones which enable card emulation, peer-to-peer, and reader/writer NFC usage. So our only hope is to wait for a software update that will finally enable this existing feature for developers to use.