Near Field Communication (NFC) is one of the most important technologies in modern-day iPhone and Android devices. We use NFC to authenticate payments using Apple Pay, unlock doors, identify owners of lost AirTags, and more. However, current NFC chips are limited to a range of 5mm, which means the two devices need to be within 5mm of each other. Due to this, it sometimes becomes harder to precisely use Apple Pay at a payment terminal, as your device needs to be within the appropriate range of the terminal.
According to the NFC Forum, though, this is all set to change soon, as the new Certification Release 15 announced earlier this year will extend the reading range to 20mm for generic device classes. — thus making contactless payments much easier. As mentioned above, the most important change will be having a less precise alignment to establish a successful connection, while still being safe enough for authentication.
CR15 will greatly improve the NFC range on your iPhone and other devices
The NFC Forum includes representatives from Apple, Google, Huawei, Sony, and other major players in the smartphone world, which means we could see these changes being implemented rather quickly. “Extending the range of NFC contactless connections was one of the key priorities outlined in the NFC Forum Five-Year Roadmap,” comments Mike McCamon, Executive Director of NFC Forum. “CR15 will give a mark of trust to device manufacturers and relying parties that devices operating within the extended read range of 20mm will work as expected. This will help to advance numerous emerging use cases, such as using your mobile phone as a digital key to unlock your car, or a smartwatch as your transport ticket.”
At this moment, it’s unclear if current devices, such as the new iPhone 17 Pro, will be able to support this technology or if it needs additional hardware, like an advanced version of the NFC chip. The NFC Forum is slated to hold a webinar next week to explain more about the benefits of this technology and how it will improve the way people take advantage of NFC.
