Devices with NFC hardware can establish communications with other NFC-equipped devices as well as NFC “tags.” NFC tags are unpowered NFC chips that draw power from a nearby smartphone or other powered NFC device. They don’t need their own battery or source of power. At their most basic, NFC tags could be used as a more convenient replacement for QR codes.

  To establish an NFC connection, all you need to do is touch two NFC-equipped devices together. For example, if you had two NFC-equipped smartphones, you would touch them together back-to-back. If you had an NFC tag, you would touch the back of your NFC-equipped smartphone to the NFC tag.

  NFC is included in a wide variety of devices, including Android devices like the Galaxy Nexus, huawei S and HTC One X. Android isn’t the only platform that supports NFC – Windows Phone devices like Nokia’s Lumia series and HTC Windows Phone 8X include NFC, as do many BlackBerry devices. However, none of Apple’s iPhones include NFC hardware.

  Anyone can purchase NFC tags, which are fairly cheap. You can configure the action that occurs when your smartphone comes in contact with the NFC tag.For example, let’s say you always put your smartphone into silent mode when you go to sleep. Instead of doing this manually each night, you could put an NFC tag on your bedside table. When you go to bed, you can place your smartphone onto the NFC tag and your smartphone will perform an action you can configure, such as automatically enabling silent mode.

  You could also create an NFC tag that contains your Wi-Fi network’s SSID and passphrase. When people visit your home, they could touch their phones to the NFC tag and log on rather than keying in the Wi-Fi network’s details manually.

  These are just a few examples – you can perform any action an app on your smartphone can execute.This is just a snapshot of what NFC is currently being used for. It’s a standard for near-field communication, and many more things could be built on top of this standard.