NFC on iPhone/iOS

What happened?

As part of an agreement between the European Union and Apple, Apple has decided to open access to its NFC module to 3rd party developers. It allows the creation of solutions for contactless payments (HCE), an alternative to Apple Pay.

This article aims to explain the challenges and opportunities related to this technology.

How it works?

What are the differences compared to Android?

Since 2013 Android allows implementing alternatives to Google's own Google Pay, and there are already a few mature solutions on the market. Apple's NFC API offers very similar capabilities from both a technical and user experience perspective. However, there are a few differences:

What are the differences compared to Apple Pay?

Apple's API allows 3dr party developers to implement most of the functionality offered by Apple Pay. Two slight differences are:

Will it work outside the EU?

Companies registered in the European Economic Area can offer this functionality to customers based in EEA. The table below shows various combinations of companies wanting to offer HCE payments in their App and customers, and the expected outcome according to Apple's requirements.


Company developing App established & licensed for payments in EEA
Company developing App not present in EEA or not licensed for payments in EEA 
EEA citizen, transacting in EEA country
✅HCE available
❌HCE not Available
EEA citizen, transacting outside EEA (traveling)
✅HCE available ❌HCE not Available

non-EEA citizen, transacting in EEA country (traveling)

❌HCE not Available ❌HCE not Available
non-EEA citizen, transacting outside EEA country ❌HCE not Available ❌HCE not Available

Revision #5
Created 4 April 2024 13:37:33 by Michał Maciąg
Updated 15 April 2024 10:59:39 by Krzysztof Drzyzga