For example, I have programmed one of my NFC tags to the night-morning mode and placed it near my bed. So every day when I go to bed I don’t have to worry about setting up my phone to sleep mode. All I need to do is just tap my phone on the NFC tag and everything is automatically set. Here’s how it look. Night – Disable WiFi, Bluetooth, GPS and open my journal app (I prefer to log my daily diet, and what I did during the day in my goal tracking app Goqii). Morning – Enable, WiFi, Bluetooth, GPS. And also give me a reminder to drink water and open my Workout app, so that I prepare for my Gym schedule accordingly. Also, it reminds me to have my pre-workout meal. This is a small use case of NFC tags in life but there are many other awesome things you can do, depending on how creative you are.
You’ll Need
NFC tags NFC enables smartphones Apps to program for example trigger
Program NFC Tags on Android
There are many applications in the play store which lets you program NFC, but my favorite is Trigger as it is free, easy to use, and offer a lot of suggested template such as – save time when driving, silence my phone while I sleep, etc. The app works in two parts – trigger and actions. Trigger as the name suggest, is what starts the action, in this case, the trigger will be bringing the phone near NFC tags, and actions will be toggle WiFi, Bluetooth, etc. Follow the simple steps to program NFC chips
Download and install Trigger from Play Store.
After launching the application, we need to create a new Task. Go to ‘My Task’ and tap on small plus icon at the bottom right.
In the next window ‘Add a Trigger’ tap on ‘NFC’ as a trigger.
Once selected click on’ Next’ to Configure NFC task.
In the next step, you can fine-tune the trigger by adding restrictions (like date, time, Wi-Fi, etc). However, this is optional, if you want to trigger actions each time you tap on NFC, you can skip this step by tapping on ‘Done’.
Now, you need to choose the action you want to perform once your phone comes in contact with NFC tag. This is where all the magic happens. To get started, tap on ‘Next’.
In the next screen, you will see various options – Wireless & Networks, Bluetooth, Display, Social Media, Application, etc.
For this instance, follow these steps.
Wireless & Networks > WiFi On/Off – check Wireless & Networks > GPS On/Off – check (requires root) Bluetooth > Bluetooth On/Off – check Applications & Shortcuts > Open Applications – check Applications & Shortcuts > Speak Text – check
A new popup window will open, configure the following actions
WiFi On/Off – Disable GPS On/Off – Disable Bluetooth On/Off – Disable Open Application – Goqii Speak Text – ‘Remember to stay hydrated’
Once done tap on Next and in the next screen, give your task a name, and tap on Next. Next, select the switch task that will get a Triggered in the morning, the process is pretty much the same. Tap on the plus icon on the top and repeat the following actions. Let’s call it ‘Morning Mode’.
Wireless & Networks > WiFi On/Off – check Wireless & Networks > GPS On/Off – check (requires root) Bluetooth > Bluetooth On/Off – check Applications & Shortcuts > Open Applications – check Applications & Shortcuts > Speak Text – check
A new popup window will open, configure the following actions
WiFi On/Off – Enable GPS On/Off – Enable Bluetooth On/Off – Enable Open Application – Fitvate Speak Text – ‘Remember pre-workout meal’
Once you are satisfied with changes, tap on ‘Add to tasks’ and give the task a name like ‘Morning Mode’ and tap on Done. Bring the NFC tag near the back of your phone. All the information will get written on the tags instantaneously.
Lets put it to test.
To copy NFC tag or erase its data, tap on the hamburger icon on the top left and select ‘Other NFC Actions’. Now you can use this tag with any NFC enabled device. However, unless you are doing a generic action like – text, open certain URL, toggle system settings, etc, you will need to install the trigger app on each phone you want to use to carry out complex actions as we have seen above.
Program NFC Tags in Windows
Nokia NFC Writer is the most popular for writing NFC tags on Windows Phone. However, this was the only application I could find even though I was not impressed by its performance. If you can also write your NFC chip from your Windows PC with the help of GoTo tags. However, you will need to buy an additional NFC reader and writer to read/write NFC tags to your PC.
How to program NFC tags on the iPhone
iPhone 6 and above are all equipped with NFC but you couldn’t use the hardware to write NFC tags, until iOS 13. If you use an iPhone 7 or above and it’s running iOS 13 or above then you can easily write custom NFC tags. You can check out this quick tutorial to create your own NFC tags. This tutorial was a brief example of how to program an NFC Tags. Obviously, you can do much with your NFC Tags depending on your creativity. How are/will you use NFC Tags? Share with me using the comments below.
