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How Apple’s New NFC Feature in iPhones Opens Doors for Third-Party Developers: Exclusive Benefits Revealed

iOS 18 on iPhone 14 Pro Max.

Maria Diaz/ZDNET

Apple is broadening the reach of NFC on the iPhone by opening the technology to third-party apps. Starting with iOS 18.1, developers will be able to offer contactless transactions from their own apps separate from Apple Pay and Apple Wallet, the company said today.

Tapping into Apple’s new APIs for NFC and SE (Secure Element), developers will be able to create apps for a variety of tasks and transactions. Among those that Apple singled out are in-store payments, car keys, closed-loop transit fares, corporate badges, student IDs, home keys, hotel keys, merchant loyalty and rewards cards, and event tickets. Down the road, even government IDs will be supported.

Also: How to use Apple Pay in stores and online (and why you should)

With a nod toward privacy and security, the new NFC access will take advantage of the Secure Element, a certified on-device chip designed to store and protect sensitive data. The transactions themselves will use Face ID or Touch ID for authentication and communicate with Apple servers.

On the user end, you’ll be able to initiate the process in a couple of different ways. You can open the NFC-supported app directly and follow the required steps. Or, you could set a specific app as your default contactless option and then simply double-click the side button to kick off the transaction as you do with Apple Pay.

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The NFC and SE APIs will launch for developers in the US, UK, Australia, Brazil, Canada, Japan, and New Zealand in an upcoming developer build for iOS 18.1. Other locations will follow, Apple added. However, developers who want to participate must enter into a commercial agreement with Apple and pay the associated fees.

Apple added NFC to the iPhone 10 years ago, but it has been natively available only for services like Apple Pay. Developers who wanted to use the technology had to jump through several hoops to get their apps to work with it. Creating the necessary APIs will make the process much easier for developers and open the door for more apps that benefit iPhone users.

Also: Every iPhone model that can be updated to Apple’s iOS 18 (and which ones can’t)

In a support page for developers , Apple explains how the NFC and SE APIs will work and how to enable specific use cases, such as car keys, student IDs, and event tickets. The page also describes the steps for requesting access to the NFC & SE platform and integrating it into an app.

Apple’s iOS 18.1 is accessible currently as a developers beta and only for the Phone 15 Pro and 15 Pro Max. With iOS 18 expected to roll out in September, the 18.1 update may arrive as soon as October. That means we should start seeing apps that support the new NFC capability before the end of the year.