What's NFC? | Near Field Communication; How to | Support on Three

In this video, find out what NFC is and what some of its uses are.

Video transcript:

If you’ve seen the abbreviation NFC around, and you’ve been wondering what it means or what it’s for, this video’s here to help.

NFC stands for Near Field Communication, which is a really simple way for two devices to communicate with each other.

Each device has to be equipped with a chip known as an NFC chip.

These run on really low levels of power, and can quickly send small amounts of data between the two devices. This makes it perfect for banking and payments.

When you last got a replacement bank card, it might have come with “contactless”. The ability to use your card to pay for things by tapping it against a card reader instead of entering your PIN code.

That’s NFC at work.

Whilst contactless payment with bank cards isn’t a new thing, a more recent use for NFC is in smartphones.

If you’ve ever used Apple Pay, Android Pay or Google Wallet to pay for something with your phone, you were using NFC technology.

Although banking is the most popular use for NFC at the moment, most Android phones will allow you to send files and photos to someone near you using NFC.

So next time you’re about to pay for something, look for this symbol, and you’ll know you can use contactless with your card or phone.