[ad_1]
Use an iPhone to turn on a light by touching an NFC tag
After the release of iOS 13, AppleInsider He posted a popular tutorial on how to trigger HomeKit scenes or actions when your iPhone touches an NFC tag. The tutorial still stands, but developer Christopher Hatch has unveiled a new free app that further simplifies the entire process and supports older devices up to iPhone 7.
Why NFC?
The idea is that by using NFC tags, you can trigger a scene, command, action, etc. just by touching it with your phone. Tags can be hidden or even embedded in objects. Users are often unable or unwilling to use their voice to control devices, and the alternative is to open the Home app on their phone, which is even more tedious.
HomeTags is a new HomeKit application on the App Store
NFC simplifies the matter. For example, when you touch your phone outside your door, your door locks and unlocks. If you have a fish tank, touching your phone on top could turn your lights on or off. Hitting your phone against a wall switch could turn a ceiling fan on or off.
The possibilities are endless if you have imagination imagining ideas.
How does it work
Configuration and use are simple. Download the app, go through the welcome process that includes granting access to HomeKit and then scanning an NFC tag.
Once scanned, you can assign a command to that tag in the form of existing HomeKit scenes. It would be a bit easier if you could create your own scenes directly from the HomeTags app, but working with existing scenes is fine.
You may have to take the additional step of jumping into the Home app and creating additional scenes if you don’t already have the specific control or scene there.
nside the HomeTags app. Change a scene (left), view existing labels (center), and scan a new label (right)
The labels that are already configured are found in the central tab of the application titled “Your labels”. You can jump to this tab to add additional tags, edit existing tags, or remove existing tags.
The first tab of the application is “Scan”. That is used to scan an NFC tag to execute its command. If you have a newer iPhone like iPhone XS, iPhone XS Max, iPhone 11, iPhone 11 Pro, iPhone 11 Pro Max and others, you won’t have to use that tab.
However, if you have an older iPhone that doesn’t have NFC scanning in the background, from iPhone 7, you can manually open the app and scan the tags to run its commands.
If I tried to use NFC tags to execute commands on those older devices, it wouldn’t work. At least not through the Shortcuts app.
Where do I find NFC tags?
In addition to the free app, you’ll need some NFC tags to get the job done. Some NFC tags can be reused from other objects, but it is easier to buy some on your own.
There are countless available on Amazon and they all seem to work just as well and are not expensive. Our favorites are Tiny NFC. They’re more expensive than others, $ 49 for a sheet of 63 labels, but they’re ridiculously small at just 10mm. These are the best to hide and stick to not be seen.
Regardless of what you’re going with, you can find something under $ 10 to get started.
Should you try it?
Absolutely. The app itself is free and simplifies a process that can be daunting for new users and adds the feature to older devices that previously couldn’t take advantage of it.
TinyNFC tags
Our only problem with the app is the ads, but this is minor. For one thing, we don’t like ads and would prefer a paid version of the app where we can support the developer without having the invasive experience that ads offer. At the same time, when NFC tags are configured, there is little need to access the app, making it less of a problem.
Still, going forward, we would pay $ 2- $ 3 for the ads to be banished forever without pause.
Whether you are an experienced smart home user or are just exploring a smart home for the first time, NFC tags are an inexpensive, fun and creative way to add additional functionality that is not intrusive and can even be completely hidden if done right.
Thanks to HomeTags, instead of manually creating the commands in Shortcuts, the process is even easier to start.
[ad_2]
