Apple’s iPhone 6 NFC chip is restricted to Apple Pay

[ETRJ]

Apple’s move to integrate NFC in its latest iPhone 6 seemed like the perfect way to push the technology even further to the masses, but Apple’s implementation isn’t going to be as open as Android and Windows Phone equivalents. Following a report from Cult of Mac, Apple has confirmed to The Verge that its NFC chip in the iPhone 6 is restricted to Apple Pay, the company’s new mobile payments platform. That means pairing to Bluetooth speakers or exchanging contacts, URLs, and photos with a tap won’t work initially.

There’s still hope for the future though. Apple restricted its Touch ID fingerprint sensor in a similar way for the iPhone 5S, but the company has opened it up to third-party developers with iOS 8. While NFC is restricted to Apple Pay for the iPhone 6 right now, it’s possible, and likely, that Apple will extend this to developers in a future release of iOS. For now, you’ll have to pay for goods using Apple Pay if you want to experiment with NFC on the iPhone 6.

Source: http://www.theverge.com/2014/9/16/6204999/iphone-6-nfc-chip-locked-to-apple-pay

[Altecice]

Like the reddit comments suggest. It will more than likely be opened up later on in the year to allow devs to use it.

[BallGum]

Like the reddit comments suggest. It will more than likely be opened up later on in the year to allow devs to use it.

To be fair, news is about what's happening now. While it's great that it will likely be changed layer on, right now we know it's pretty much locked.

[Guest]

Well shit

[qwertywarrior]

apple did something like this before

will probably be opened up in a year

[rockking1379]

apple did something like this before

will probably be opened up in a year

touchID was originally apple only. now it is being opened up to allow third parties securely allow payments. so yeah definitely will be opened up later.

[Victorious Secret]

Of course it will be opened up later. 

 

Apple is going to ensure this thing is beyond bulletproof before they let 3rd parties at it. 

I have more faith in Apple Pay given how much backend support they are building up for it so people actually use it. Contactless payments are a relative unknown to most of North America, Eurolanders have enjoyed not being required to insert anything into anything for a lot longer. If this drives up adoption of contactless payments here, I'm all for it. 

 

[jrfox87]

It's not at all surprising. They didnt put NFC in their phone for the sake of having NFC the way many android phones did, they put it in their because it was needed for Apple Pay. Later on it will likely get opened up to developers just like stuff has in the past.

[StingBull]

Not likely. Remember how Apple dissed NFC last year? They won't implement it fully.

[ZeroBreaker]

Guys, please use a little more common sense. TouchID was a hardware interface. Apple's integration of NFC, from what we can see, is not. They have gone on and on about secure areas and hardware protection, it would be surprising if they opened up NFC anytime within the next two years. NFC's main attractive property is it's use in mobile payments - any other uses are much more 'proof of concept' and immature. Apple will not see the use in jeopardising it's current relationship with banks and credit card companies for such a limited use case.

 

Remember, Apple is building a phone for it's main userbase, which isn't tech literates, rather the general population.

[jaggysnake57]

Like the reddit comments suggest. It will more than likely be opened up later on in the year to allow devs to use it.

no it wont.....anything that allows copyright infringment wont get opened and apple has airdrop for contacts, photos etc....expect this to stay locked down with a jailbreak

[Misanthrope]

Perfect example case of why people are adopting android instead.

[Techhog]

Yay for Apple holding everyone back again!

[dizmo]

Of course it will be opened up later. 

 

Apple is going to ensure this thing is beyond bulletproof before they let 3rd parties at it. 

I have more faith in Apple Pay given how much backend support they are building up for it so people actually use it. Contactless payments are a relative unknown to most of North America, Eurolanders have enjoyed not being required to insert anything into anything for a lot longer. If this drives up adoption of contactless payments here, I'm all for it. 

 

Tap to Pay is pretty popular in North America, so I wouldn't really say it's unknown.

However paying with a cell phone is.

[totjup5]

Wow....

[LegendKillerRG]

Restricted... Jailbreak time!