As we all know, the iPhone 6 series has been equipped with NFC since 2014, but it has always been limited to its own applications to use NFC, and third-party applications cannot use it directly.
Today, Apple suddenly announced that it will open the iPhone’s NFC chip to developers and allow the use of the secure element in the phone to launch contactless data exchange functions in their own apps.
The benefits of NFC opening
Simply put, in the future, iPhone users will be able to use it for in-store payments, car keys, closed-loop public transportation, corporate work badges, student ID cards, home keys, hotel keys, merchant points and rewards cards, and even event tickets, just like Android users. In the future, ID cards will also be supported. This also means that the “exclusive” advantages of Apple Pay and Apple Wallet will gradually disappear.
Data comparison
Functions | Before | After |
Mobile payment | Apple Pay only | Multiple Payments |
Home keys | Not supported | Supported |
Student IDs | Not supported | Supported |
Digital car keys | Not supported | Supported |
Hotel keys | Not supported | Supported |
Event tickets | Not supported | Supported |
Reward cards | Not supported | Supported |
The countries and regions that first supported this function on iOS18.1 were only Australia, Brazil, Canada, Japan, New Zealand, the UK, and the US.
And this feature requires iOS18.1 to use, which means that if you want to use this feature, you have to abandon the smooth and easy-to-use old version and upgrade to the new version. From Apple’s point of view, this feature seems to be limited to the model. Some old models may not be able to use it even if they have NFC chips, because Apple specifically mentioned that there are problems with the hardware security chips of some models.
Apple also stated that in order to include this new solution in the iPhone app, developers need to sign a business agreement with Apple, apply for NFC and SE authorization, and pay related fees. This is equivalent to allowing banks and other service providers to compete with the Apple Pay platform.