What is NFC on a mobile phone and why is it there?

Since our blog is all about answering the oddly specific questions everyone wonders about, here is another one people keep typing into Google. What exactly is NFC?

NFC stands for Near Field Communication. It lets your phone communicate with another device that is only a few centimetres away. Think of it as a tiny handshake between two gadgets. Quick, quiet and over before you have time to blink. It is the bit of tech that makes contactless payments work.

When you tap your phone on a card reader, the two devices have a little chat, confirm you are you and the payment goes through. That same handshake lets your phone pair with things like headphones or speakers if they support NFC pairing. You tap your phone to the device to start the connection, then the actual sound is handled by Bluetooth. NFC simply starts the process.

The key thing is distance. NFC only works when the devices are very close. This makes it secure and very deliberate. You have to choose to tap. It is handy for payments, travel cards, digital tickets, smart tags and quick pairing. Most people use it without giving it much thought, which is exactly how it is meant to be.

So, if you see NFC listed in a phone’s features, it is basically telling you that the phone is ready for tap to pay and all those small conveniences that save you fishing around for cards or typing passwords like it’s the noughties.