How do NFC business cards work?

An NFC business card has a tiny chip and antenna sealed inside it. The chip holds one thing: a web address. When you hold the card near the top or back of a phone, the phone powers the chip for a moment, reads that address and offers to open it in the browser. The page that opens is your digital profile, with your photo, number, links and a button to save your contact. No app, no pairing, no battery in the card. Every card also carries a QR code, so phones that cannot read NFC can scan it instead.

What NFC is, in plain terms

NFC stands for near field communication. It is a short-range radio standard that lets two things exchange a small amount of data when they are a few centimetres apart. You already use it if you pay by tapping your phone or a bank card, or open a door with a key card.

The chip in a business card is passive. It has no battery and does nothing on its own. When a phone with NFC switched on comes close, the phone's own radio field gives the chip just enough energy to answer with what it holds. Move the card away and it goes quiet again. This is why an NFC card never needs charging, and why the range is so short: you have to bring the card almost to the phone on purpose.

What is on the chip: a link, not your data

This is the part people most often get wrong. The chip does not store your name, number, email or photo. It stores a short, permanent web address that points to your profile. Everything you see on the profile lives online and is loaded fresh each time someone taps.

That design has three useful consequences:

• You can change your details at any time. New job title, new number, new photo: edit the profile in your dashboard and the next tap shows the update. The card itself never needs rewriting.
• A lost card gives away very little. Whoever finds it gets the same public profile you would hand to anyone you meet, nothing more. With Nexus you can also point the card somewhere else from the dashboard.
• The card can be re-pointed. If a card moves to a colleague, or you want it to open a different profile, the link stays the same and the profile behind it changes. The printed QR code follows the card, so both routes keep working.

The card is a doorway, not a filing cabinet. What sits behind the door can change whenever you need it to.

What happens when someone taps

The exact steps differ a little between phone makers, but the sequence is the same everywhere: wake the phone, bring the card close, accept the prompt, and the browser opens.

On an iPhone

iPhone XS, XR and every iPhone since can read NFC tags in the background, with no app open. The screen needs to be on and the phone unlocked. Hold the card near the top edge of the back of the phone, where the antenna sits. A banner slides down at the top of the screen; tap it and Safari opens the profile.

Older models, from iPhone 7 to iPhone X, can read tags too, but not in the background. Their owners need to open the NFC tag reader from Control Centre first, or simply scan the QR code with the camera, which is usually quicker.

On Android

Most modern Android phones have NFC, and on many it is on by default, mainly for contactless payments. With the screen on and unlocked, hold the card to the middle of the back, a little above centre on most models. The phone shows a notification or opens the link straight away, depending on the make. If nothing happens, NFC may be switched off in settings; it is usually under connections or connected devices.

The QR code: the honest fallback

NFC works on the vast majority of phones people carry today, but not every single one. Some older phones have no NFC at all, some people switch it off, and a thick case can get in the way. That is why every Nexus card also has a QR code on it. It opens the same profile through the same permanent link, so whichever route the other person uses, they land in the same place and your analytics count it.

A good habit: offer the tap first and, if the phone does not react within a couple of seconds, turn the card over and let them scan.

What the other person sees

After the tap, the person you met sees a mobile web page: your profile. They do not need an account, an app or to give anything in return. A typical profile shows:

• Your photo, name, role and company
• Buttons to call, email, message or visit your website
• Social accounts as icons
• Anything else you choose to add: a PDF brochure, a video, an image carousel, a short form
• A Save contact button

The look is yours to set. Nexus has 36 profile templates, some designed to match the card finishes, and every colour and font can be adjusted to your brand. Profiles work in English and Arabic, with Arabic shown right to left.

How the contact gets saved

Opening a profile is not the same as saving a contact, and this is where many digital cards fall short. The Save contact button downloads a standard contact file, called a vCard, which both iPhone and Android understand.

1. 1

   They tap Save contact

   The phone downloads a small contact file with your name, number, email, company and photo.

2. 2

   The phone shows a preview

   On iPhone a contact card appears with an option to create a new contact. On Android the contacts app opens or offers to import the file.

3. 3

   They confirm

   One more tap and you are in their address book, with your details spelled the way you wrote them.

There is also a way to go the other direction. With Exchange, the visitor can send their own name and details back to you from your profile. They appear in your contacts list in the dashboard, where you can export them or sync them to a CRM. Some people also add your profile to Apple Wallet or Google Wallet as a pass.

Privacy: what the card can and cannot do

Because the chip only holds a link, an NFC business card cannot read anything from the phone that taps it, cannot install anything and cannot make payments. The phone always asks before opening the link, or opens it in the normal browser where the usual protections apply.

On the profile side, it is fair to ask what is recorded when someone visits. Nexus counts views, taps, QR scans, saves and link clicks so you can see what is working, with locations shown at city level. It uses no tracking cookies and does not store visitors' IP addresses for analytics. Contact details people send you are encrypted at rest. The security page explains the details.

Durability and everyday wear

With no battery and no moving parts, there is little in an NFC card to wear out. The chip is sealed inside the card body, so normal wallet life, the odd drop and the occasional coffee splash are fine. What can damage it is the same thing that damages any card: sharp bending or cracking right through the spot where the chip sits.

The material changes how a card feels and ages more than how it reads. You can compare PVC, wood and metal on the cards page.

Common myths

Is an NFC card worth it?

If you meet people regularly and your details change now and then, an NFC card saves you reprinting and saves the other person typing. It also tells you whether your follow-ups are reaching anyone. If you hand out a few cards a year and your details never change, a paper card may serve you just as well. We compare the two honestly in digital vs paper business cards.