NFC! Hi Folks, I am testing some NFC stickl...

[Green_Gorilla]

NFC!

Hi Folks,

I am testing some NFC sticklers and key-fobs etc. All is well, in that I can write a text code on the NFC Tags, and I can get Appsheet to read that, and populate various fields from a table of information based on the text it reads from the Tag.

All well and good, and all on Android!

Any way to get this to work on iPhones? I have an iPhone 6 with iOS 11… I can pay in a shop with my phone, so it must be using NFC? But can I get Appsheet to work through it?

Ideas anyone?

Thanks GG

[Grant_Stead]

Check your app permissions to make sure NFC is approved… I don’t think appsheet used to ask for that permission on install. So if the app was installed prior to the NFC feature I found that I had to manually set the permission. @Gil_Littman_AppSheet

[Green_Gorilla]

@Grant_Stead In my iPhone settings it hasn’t got the option to change permissions…at least I can’t find it.

Is there something in Appsheet to change those permissions?

Definitely upgrading to Android next upgrade day!

[Gil_Littman_App]

Ok, and what happen when you press the NFC button?

[Green_Gorilla]

When I move the phone over the tags (which work with my other phone, Android), nothing happens…

I am wondering, however, if it’s something else… what is that stuff about NDEF? I saw one video saying that if the NDEF record wasn’t encoded,the iPhone wouldn’t read it… Have I got an NDEF that isn’t encoded, even though I wrote some text to the NFC Tag?

[Green_Gorilla]

@Gil_Littman_AppSheet Nothing happens… On the Android, I get the notification saying “Hold phone over NFC Tag” or something like that. On the iPhone, nothing…

…well, not quite nothing… the column header moves up as if to accommodate the data that the reader is supposed to be reading, but other than that, nothing.

[Gil_Littman_App]

So it seems like NFC is only supported from iPhone 7. I actually wasn’t aware of that and I will update our docs. So if your users will open your app with a supported device (iOS 11+ iPhone 7 or above) the NFC button will pop up a scan NFC dialog, and the scan will work like in Android.

[Green_Gorilla]

@Gil_Littman_AppSheet Thank you. Like I said earlier, it was an issue with some people saying it should work, others saying not…

At least now I know.

Thanks

GG

[Grant_Stead]

@Green_Gorilla GOOD to know, thanks for posting!

[Green_Gorilla]

It just means that we will have to inform potential customers of our Apps that their users should have Android, or a newer iPhone…

We’ll sort it.

[Grant_Stead]

@Gil_Littman_AppSheet This is a great reason to be able to to make the scanable fields conditional. Then the user could identify in the usersettings their “scan preferences” or even when eventually we get the ability to read the device/os info. (Also good to be conditional so we can say, you have to use the scan, or not.)

[Gil_Littman_App]

@Grant_Stead it is somewhat conditional already, the NFC button will not show if you’re opening the app in a browser or in iOS < 11. You’re right that the app creator currently don’t have a way to know this and show different behavior for non supported users.

[Grant_Stead]

@Gil_Littman_AppSheet You’re awesome!

[Julie_Wills]

The last I heard, Apple locks down NFC on iPhones so that it can ONLY be used for Apple Pay.

[Gil_Littman_App]

Thanks!

[Jimmy_Tsui]

Is it supported on iPod touch?

[Gil_Littman_App]

iPods don’t support NFC as far as I know.

[Green_Gorilla]

@Julie_Wills Yes, I thought that. But then we have some people saying you can use NFC with iOS 11, and others sayiong you can’t. Some say you need another app that works with it and allows it to be used on iPhones.

Our issue is that we would love to incorporate NFC technology into our Apps, but with 1/2 the customers using iPhones, we can’t really push it…

[Julie_Wills]

A quick Google found me this, amongst other things

@Green_Gorilla

It seems iOS 12 may open things up a bit. nfc.today - Apple iPhone X NFC | NFC.Today Apple iPhone X NFC | NFC.Today nfc.today

[Green_Gorilla]

@Julie_Wills Indeed. We are waiting with baited breath to see if this is what will crack it for us.

We have read so many pages of info about this, and it’s the fact that some say you can, some say you can’t thing that is confusing. It’s clear my iPhone has NFC because I can use Apple Pay, but whenever I try apps that profess to allow me to read NFC Tags, it tells m I don;t have the hardware for the job!

Thanks

[Grant_Stead]

@Green_Gorilla I would go for it. I enable the NFC and barcode scanning and allow drop down selection. This way you’re about fail proof. All of those are always ENUM basetype REF so that the user gets a visual confirmation. (I view these as tools to make searching faster and more accurate. Not to be confused with an odd version of permissions. Example, I would never lock it down so if you didn’t have the key you can’t get in…)

On my ID cards I print the data Matrix and encode the RFID with the same UNIQUEID. Also, stickers are done the same way…

[Grant_Stead]

Then the user gets choice

[Gil_Littman_App]

@Green_Gorilla NFC should work on iOS 11 devices the same way it works on Android (prior to 11 NFC was locked only for things like Apple pay). When you open your app on an iOS device do you see the NFC icon?

[Green_Gorilla]

I see this: