Will an NFC review card work on your customers’ phones?

Short answer: on most phones, yes, and on the rest there is a QR code. Here is the honest detail, because it is worth knowing before you put one on your counter.

What an NFC tap actually does

The chip inside the card or stand holds a web address. Nothing else. When a phone comes within a couple of centimetres, it reads that address and offers to open it. There is no app, no pairing, no battery, and nothing is taken off the customer’s phone.

iPhone

Apple has supported reading NFC tags since the iPhone 7, but how it works depends on the model.

• iPhone XS and newer: reads tags in the background. The customer holds the top of the phone near the tag and a notification appears. Nothing to open first.
• iPhone 7, 8 and X: no background reading. These need the NFC Tag Reader from Control Centre, or an app. In practice, most customers on these phones will use the QR code instead.

On every iPhone the screen needs to be on, and the phone needs to have been unlocked at least once since it was last restarted.

Android

Most Android phones sold in the last decade have NFC, and most read tags in the background the same way a modern iPhone does. Two things stop it working:

• NFC is switched off in settings. It is on by default on most handsets, but not all.
• The phone is locked. Tapping a locked phone usually does nothing.

Budget handsets are the usual exception. Some cheaper models ship without an NFC antenna at all.

So what share of customers can tap?

We are not going to invent a number. What we can say is that the phones that cannot tap are mostly older iPhones and entry-level Android handsets, and that both are in steady decline. It is a minority, but it is not nobody, and it will not be nobody for a few years yet.

That is the whole reason half our range carries a printed QR code as well.

Why NFC and QR together is the safer buy

A tap is faster and feels better when it works. A QR code works on phones with a suitable camera and QR scanner. Putting both on the same stand means you are not turning anyone away.

Our rule of thumb:

• Public-facing counter or table: choose an NFC + QR product. You do not control who walks in.
• Handed over by a staff member: NFC-only is fine, because the person handing it over can help.

What it cannot do

Worth being straight about this, because some sellers are not.

• Tapping does not post a review. It opens the page. The customer writes and submits it themselves.
• It cannot bypass a sign-in. Google reviews require a Google account, and the customer may be prompted to log in.
• It does not guarantee anyone leaves anything. It removes the friction of finding your listing, which is a real barrier, but the asking still matters.

If you want the placement side of it, see where to put a review stand so people actually use it.