How to tell whether your phone supports NFC

First, the answer you are worried about

If your phone does not handle NFC, you will still be able to leave a review. Our products carry an NFC chip and a printed QR code, with no option and no surcharge. The second opens exactly the same page as the first: camera, scan, page loads.

In other words, "is my phone compatible?" decides nothing on the customer's side. It still deserves a clear answer, because it explains most cases where "it does not work" — and in nine out of ten, it is not an incompatibility but a setting that has been switched off.

The criterion, not the catalogue

Most articles on the subject hand you a list of models. It is out of date within six months, and it does not answer the only question that matters: what about mine?

The useful criterion fits in two lines. On Android, NFC has been standard on devices sold since 2016; it is still missing from part of the entry-level range, where it is the first component dropped to hit a price. On Apple, tag reading exists from the iPhone 7 on iOS 11. Earlier models sometimes have a chip, but it stays reserved for Apple Pay and will never read a plate.

That criterion ages well, unlike a list: every new phone released respects it.

Checking on Android

The difficulty is not technical, it is organisational: every manufacturer files the setting somewhere different. On Samsung it lives under "Connections", on Xiaomi under "Connection & sharing", on Google under "Connected devices" then "Connection preferences". Hunting around takes longer than the check itself.

The shortcut that works everywhere: open your settings and use their search bar at the top. Type "NFC". If a result appears, your phone handles NFC — its mere presence in the settings answers the question, before you even look at whether the switch is on.

If nothing appears, the device has no NFC module. That is final: no app and no update will change it, the component is physically absent.

Checking on iPhone

Do not look for a switch: there is none. On compatible iPhones, NFC is permanently on and cannot be turned off. That is good news — one less setting to explain to your customers — but it throws people coming from Android who are looking for a box to tick.

There is, however, a subtlety almost nobody explains, and it produces entirely legitimate "my iPhone reads nothing" reports.

• iPhone XS, XR and later. Reading happens in the background: just bring the top of the phone close, screen on, without opening anything. This is the behaviour everyone has in mind.
• iPhone 7, 8 and X. The chip is there, but it does not read tags in the background. You have to add the "NFC Tag Reader" shortcut to Control Centre — an iOS 14 addition — then activate it before approaching the plate.

So a customer with an iPhone 8 who rests their phone on a plate and gets nothing does not have a faulty device. They have a device that needs one extra step — or, more simply, the QR code right next to it.

When NFC is present but switched off

This is the most common case, and the most invisible. On Android, NFC may be off by default depending on the manufacturer, or have been switched off deliberately to "save battery".

That saving is a stubborn myth. The module only wakes on contact with a tag and stays idle the rest of the time; its idle draw is not measurable over the course of a day. Switching it off mainly removes contactless payment, which most people discover at a till.

Turning it back on takes the same route as the check: settings, search "NFC", switch. The change is immediate, with no restart.

What your customer sees, case by case

Here is the summary we use when shop owners write to us. It holds for any product carrying both technologies.

The right-hand column never varies. That is the whole point of printing a QR code beside the chip: it turns every "nothing happens" row into a journey that completes, without your customer having to work out why. Our comparison of NFC and QR codes sets out what each technology brings.

Check in ten seconds whether a phone reads NFC

1. Open the settings and search for "NFC". Every manufacturer files this setting somewhere different. The settings search bar sidesteps the problem: type NFC and the result takes you straight there.
2. If the setting appears, switch it on. Its presence alone proves the phone handles NFC. The switch may be off without that meaning any incompatibility.
3. On iPhone, do not look for a switch. There is none. From the iPhone 7 on iOS 11, NFC is permanently active and cannot be turned off.
4. Test it on a plate. Bring the top of the phone close, screen on, and hold for two seconds. A notification confirms everything is working.

If the test fails while the setting exists and is switched on, incompatibility is not the cause. Look at the surface: a plate resting on metal will not respond, for reasons our guide on metal and NFC explains. And if the chip no longer responds anywhere, the antenna has given out — our guide on how long an NFC chip lasts explains what happens then.