Two or three years ago, we went to the store with a full wallet - money, coins, bank cards and discounts. Now it is enough to just have a smartphone, but not any, but equipped with an NFC chip. And although we've heard about these three letters for a long time , the question still arises, "what is it and how does it work?" We will try to explain the principle of operation of this technology in simple words. We will also explain why the NFC chip is so useful and necessary.
NFC (Near Field Communication) technology is, in fact, a method of transmitting data over a very short distance. But don't confuse it with Bluetooth, which is also used for data transfer. However, it manages to work at a greater distance, which can reach up to 100 m. Instead, the NFC chip catches at a distance of not more than 10 cm. Therefore, in smartphones it is installed to make contactless payments.
And now an interesting fact - the first phone that was equipped with this chip was the Nokia 6131. It was released back in 2006! But then contactless payments were not invented yet, so no one understood the full value of the technology. By the way, I had this phone (and still have it now) and didn't even suspect that it had this technology.
In Ukraine, contactless payments began to be widely used only after in March 2017 PrivatBank and MasterCard launched the "NFC-wallet" service, which made it possible to "tie" their banking card to smartphone. Today, you can increasingly find chip support in smartphones, and the presence of a chip is perhaps one of the most important criteria when choosing a gadget.
The chip is based on radio frequency identification (RFID) and the main purpose of the technology is to determine which device was brought to it. The huge advantage is that both devices do not need to be active. Only the gadget that reads the data.
You can order a bank card with a special label for some time. In this case, you do not need to run the card through the terminal, enter the PIN code, covering it with your hand from outsiders. Instead, you simply attach the card to the terminal for a few seconds - and your purchases have already been paid for. How it happens through a smartphone - we will tell below.
Most people think that such chips are only installed in smartphones. However, the list of supported devices is quite large. Note that this technology was originally designed to quickly connect two devices. For example, to remotely configure your camera. With the help of the chip, you can identify various accessories for your smartphone - from headphones to smart watches. That's just it works at 13.56 MHz. That is why large amounts of data cannot be transmitted through it, as the speed varies from 106 Kbps to 848 Kbps.
There are two types of NFC - active and passive. As mentioned above, the technology requires at least one device with an active chip.
Active NFC is installed in:
Passive chips are installed in:
In addition to chips, NFC tags are also very actively used. They can be sold complete with "smart home" devices or separately. You can lock it and open the door with a keychain or NFC smartphone.
If you have a smartphone with NFC, then to make a payment you need to register in Google Pay for a smartphone on Android or in Apple Pay for a smartphone on iOS. You need to add your bank cards after registration. & Nbsp; You also need to activate the chip in your device settings. This is done quite easily and quickly. To do this, go to settings - & gt; "Connections" - & gt; & nbsp; "NFC and Payment" and activate the slider. & nbsp; To protect yourself when shopping in supermarkets, you'll need to enable fingerprint scanner unlock or Face ID (Face Unlock).
NFC technology is a much needed thing that simplifies our lives, saves time and helps secure the payment process. Recently, the technology is being actively implemented in various spheres of life. Therefore, we recommend buying devices with NFC. You'll thank us for that later.
