What is NFC, how does it open on a phone, and what does the chip inside the stand do

A metro card, a contactless payment at the grocery checkout, a hotel room keycard — they're all close relatives. NFC is a contact of just a few centimeters. Unlike radio, it doesn't fill a room; you practically have to touch it. That's exactly why it works at a checkout counter: the phone at the next table won't accidentally open your menu.

The chip inside the stand

Underneath the acrylic, most orders embed an NXP NTAG213 (144 bytes of user memory) or the slightly larger NTAG215. A single URL is written onto it: a Google review form, an Instagram profile, a WhatsApp chat, or a menu page. When a phone gets close, the browser opens on its own. No store app, no membership, no QR scanner is required.

On iPhone, Apple's background tag reading typically works on XS and later (with the screen on); behavior can vary slightly by iOS version. On Android, if NFC is turned off in settings — and it often is — the customer falls back to the QR code. That's why we never rely on the chip alone: the printed QR code on the same stand is the backup door. Reading the NFC tag itself needs no internet connection; only the web page it opens does.

Rewriting it

Most chips ship unlocked: your Instagram handle changes, your menu moves to a new address, you add a WhatsApp line for the season. All we need is the new link. A chip that's been locked can never be rewritten again — we only lock one if you specifically ask us to.

Patients, customers, and card details

Clinics ask this often: “Does the chip collect data?” It doesn't. The stand never writes a patient record to your server — it just opens Google's form, nothing more. A business-card stand can also carry a vCard, which is likewise just a link or a contact file. Any payment step is your own POS or IBAN page; we never store card numbers.