NFC setup
Put your card on an NFC tag
One tag, written once, and anyone can hold their phone near it to open your card. No app for them to install, and nothing to reprint when your details change.
Before you start
Three things, and you probably have two of them
An NFC tag or card
A sticker, a plastic card, a keyring or a wristband — they all work the same way. Any NTAG213 tag holds a web address with room to spare, and it is the cheapest of the common types.
A phone that can write to it
An Android phone with Chrome can write the tag from inside En Contacto. An iPhone cannot write from a browser, so it needs a free tag-writing app instead. Both are covered below.
Your card's web address
The link you already share. It is on your dashboard next to your card, and it is what gets written to the tag. If you use your own domain, the tag uses that.
On Android
Write the tag from inside En Contacto
Chrome on Android can talk to NFC hardware directly, so the whole thing happens on the card screen with nothing else installed. Check NFC is switched on in your phone settings first — it usually is.
Open your dashboard on the phone
Sign in to En Contacto in Chrome on the Android phone itself, not on a computer. The tag is written by the phone you are holding.
Press the NFC button on your card
Find the card you want the tag to open and press the NFC option beside its link. A prompt appears asking you to hold the tag against the phone.
Hold the tag to the back of the phone
Rest it against the upper back of the phone, where the NFC antenna usually sits, and hold still for a second. You will see a confirmation when it has been written.
On iPhone
An iPhone reads tags but cannot write them from a browser
This is an Apple limitation rather than something we can add. Safari has no way to write an NFC tag, so the NFC button does not appear on an iPhone at all — if you were looking for it and could not find it, that is why.
Reading is the part that matters day to day, and iPhones have always been good at it: every iPhone from the XS onwards will read a tag with no app open at all. Writing is a one-time job, and a free app does it in a minute.
Copy your card's address
Open your dashboard and use Copy Link on the card you want the tag to open. That is the exact address the tag needs to hold.
Install a free tag-writing app
Search the App Store for an NFC tag writer — NFC Tools is the one most people use and it is free. Any app that offers to write a URL record will do.
Write a URL record and hold the tag
Choose Write, then URL, paste your card address, and hold the tag to the top edge of the phone. If you have an Android phone nearby, borrowing it for two minutes skips all of this.
Choosing tags
Almost any tag works, with one exception worth knowing
A web address is tiny, so storage is not the deciding factor: an NTAG213 holds around 144 bytes and your card link uses a fraction of that. NTAG215 and NTAG216 hold more and cost slightly more, which only matters if you plan to store something larger later. Most tags can be rewritten as often as you like unless you deliberately lock them, so one tag can follow you between cards.
The exception is metal. A plain tag stuck to a metal surface — the back of a phone, a laptop lid, a metal card holder — usually will not read at all, because the metal interferes with the field. If that is where it is going, buy tags described as on-metal or anti-metal, which have a shielding layer built in.
If it does not work
Four things that explain nearly every failure
- Nothing happens when you tap
- Move the tag slowly around the back of the phone. The antenna is a small area rather than the whole body, and it sits near the top on most phones and near the center on others.
- The NFC button is not there
- You are either on an iPhone, where it never appears, or on a desktop browser. Writing only works in Chrome on an Android phone — open your dashboard on the phone itself.
- It worked, then stopped
- Check the tag has not been physically damaged or bent, and that it is not sitting against metal or another tag. Two tags together will usually read as neither.
- It opens the wrong card
- The tag holds whatever address was written last. Write it again from the card you actually want — the old address is overwritten, not added to.
Questions about NFC tags
- Does the person I tap need an app?
- No. The tag holds a web address, so their phone opens it in whatever browser they already use. That is the whole reason this works at an event with a stranger.
- Do I need to rewrite the tag when I change my details?
- No, and this is the main advantage over printing. The tag holds your card's address, not your details. Change your job title, your photo or your links and the same tag opens the updated card.
- Does the tag need a battery or an internet connection?
- The tag needs neither — it is powered by the phone that reads it and holds no more than a short piece of text. The phone reading it does need internet to load your card.
- Can I use one tag for several cards?
- A tag points at one card at a time. You can rewrite it whenever you like, so it can follow you between cards, but it cannot offer a choice when somebody taps it.
- What if someone's phone does not read NFC?
- Show them the QR code instead. Every card has one, it opens exactly the same page, and it works on any phone with a camera — which is why we would not recommend relying on the tag alone.
Written for your job
The same product, explained the way one job actually works. Pick whichever is closest to yours.
Write your first tag
Your card address is on your dashboard, ready to copy or write straight to a tag.
Go to my dashboard