How to Use Programmable NFC Tags With Your Android Phone

Your Android phone’s NFC receiver can do much more, than just transferring photos and  doing mobile payment. Using tiny, cheap NFC tags you can have your phone automatically perform actions when you touch them.

Some great uses are: place NFC tags on your bedside table, near your front door, in your car, and on your desk at work. Tapping your phone against them or placing it down on them could automatically select device settings that makes sense in that location.

How to do this?

At first, you need a smartphone with NFC hardware. Then, second, you’ll need programmable NFC tags.

These tags don’t have batteries in them, but they do have a bit of memory. When you place your phone’s NFC reader near them, the NFC reader provides power to the tag, and can read the data from the tag. The tags are programmable, so you can write whatever data you want into the tag from your phone.

Programming the Tags

NFC reader app is not a default, stock Android app. So visit Play Store and download an NFC reader app, such NFC Tools. You can find lot of other similar apps, just search for “NFC tags” keywords.

Select the data type you want to write and tap tag against the NFC reader on the back of your phone. Done. The tag can be locked after the write process. Be careful, once the tag is locked, then you will not be able to write data again to the tag.

How to use

Next, you’ll need an app that will respond to the tags. For example, if you used NFC Tools to write data to your tags, you can install the NFC Tasks app. When your phone reads an NFC tag you’ve written instructions to, the NFC Tools app will read the instructions from that NFC tag and perform them.

You can then just place the tags somewhere convenient. Place them on a table, and then place your phone on them when you want to perform the action. Fasten them to a wall near a door if you want to tap your phone against a tag when you leave or enter an area. It’s up to you what you want to use these tags for. The uses are practically endless. [via howtogeek]

You can read more about NFC tags on this Instructables page or read see more helpful how to guides.