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Until now Tags has allowed users to tap their phone on NFC tags at various venues to read information off of them (unfortunately these aren’t very commonplace yet — I have yet to actually use the feature in a real-world situation). But this update also adds write support — you can now create your own tag on the phone, and specify what information you want to share, be it your contact information, a link to a website, or a snippet of text. Then, when someone else with an NFC-equipped device taps your phone with theirs, they’ll be able to immediately receive this information (much in the same way you would using Bump). And, if you happen to own any of those NFC stickers that Google likes to show off, you can use the phone to write data to those, too.

 

At this point the feature is going to be more of a novelty than anything, but it’s likely that the next iPhone will support NFC, and it won’t be long before we start using it for payments and third-party applications take advantage of it, too.

You can see why. Apple doesn’t want users downloading songs from iTunes and immediately beaming copies to their friends, and Bluetooth is a battery hog and security threat. But there are other solutions, such as an HTTPS-like certification mechanism. The existing restrictions have all but eliminated a whole genre of apps that could have been: for instance, only a tiny handful of multiplayer games allow Android and iPhone users to go head-to-head, and I’m sure GroupMe would love to form groups out of Bluetooth mesh networks connecting every enabled device in a given room.

NFC opens up a whole cornucopia of possibilities. Phones serving as credit cards, keys, and ID are the most obvious, and least imaginative. Interestingly, NFC can also be used to automatically authorize Bluetooth connections. Next year we’ll see the emergence of a whole new category of apps and startups—and, hopefully, some new unexpected left-field brilliance. Developers, start your engines.

You may not have heard of NFC before, but it’s a very exciting technology (and it’s actually been around for a while). The gist of it: new Android phones will have a chip that let you tap your phone against special sensors to complete a specific action. That sounds vague, but it’s got plenty of practical applications. One of them involves credit cards — you’ll be able to hook up your credit card to your Android phone, and conduct transactions simply by tapping your phone against a sensor.

 

There are plenty of other possible uses too. Tap your phone against a location-aware sensor, and it can check you into whatever venue you’re standing in, without having to bother with opening app on your phone.