What Is an NFC Business Card?

An NFC business card looks like an ordinary card, but it has a small chip and antenna inside. Hold it near a phone that can read NFC, and the phone offers to open a web page. With eTapIT, that page is your digital profile.

What NFC is

NFC stands for near-field communication. It’s a short-range wireless standard that works at a distance of a few centimetres, which is why you have to bring the card close to the phone. The same technology is used for contactless payments and transit cards, though a business card uses it for something much simpler.

The chip in the card doesn’t have a battery. The phone’s reader powers it briefly when the two are close together, reads the information stored on it, and the connection ends.

What’s stored on the card

An NFC business card usually stores a single web address (URL). It doesn’t store your phone number, email or job title directly. When the phone reads the card, it sees the address and shows a prompt to open it in the browser.

Storing a link rather than your details has a practical benefit: when you change jobs, phone numbers or links, you update your online profile and the same card keeps working.

What happens when someone taps your card

• You hold the card near the top or back of their phone.
• If NFC is supported and switched on, the phone shows a notification to open your profile link.
• They tap the notification and your profile opens in their browser. No app is needed.
• From your profile they can save your contact details, visit your links or connect with you.

Which phones can read it

Many recent smartphones can read NFC, but not all. iPhones from the iPhone XS onwards can read NFC tags without an app. Most Android phones with NFC hardware can too, though on some models NFC has to be switched on in settings first. Where the reader sits also varies: near the top edge on iPhones, usually the middle of the back on Android phones.

Because support isn’t universal, a good NFC card also carries a QR code that opens the same link. Anyone with a camera phone can scan it.

What an NFC card doesn’t do

• It doesn’t save your contact into someone’s phone automatically. They choose whether to save it.
• It isn’t proof of identity and doesn’t verify who you are.
• It can’t take payments or log anyone into anything.

When an NFC card makes sense

NFC cards suit people who meet a lot of new contacts: at events, in client meetings, at community meetups. They’re also useful when your details change often, or when you want to share more than fits on paper, such as a portfolio, booking link or the communities you’re part of.

If most of the people you meet use phones without NFC, the QR code on the card does the same job.