I've been writing about NFC and QR codes for over a decade.

[neil@mastodon.neilzone.co.uk]

@Edent

QR: occasional, but a few

NFC: absolutely zero

[pikesley@mastodon.me.uk]

@Edent

One of my insulin pens sends its data to my phone over NFC

[thomas@metalhead.club]

@Edent I use it for payments only.

[edent@mastodon.social]

@pikesley oh! That's rather clever.

[pwaring@social.xk7.net]

@Edent I am the opposite - I have never used NFC on any of my phones!

The only time I use QR codes are when I have to authorise access for something, e.g. logging into some websites.

[jamesb@fedi.duckduckpigeon.co.uk]

@Edent NFC excluding Tap to Pay - Never.

QR codes - very rarely, especially random ones with no context to where they go.

[hugh@social.crablab.uk]

@Edent Don't think I ever use NFC on my phone outside of tap-to-pay or transit cards.

Occasionally I read/write NFC tags or random transit cards, Mifare Classic etc.

[jamesb@fedi.duckduckpigeon.co.uk]

@Edent Oh hang on, I forgot the access cards for work which I suppose are NFC.

[yvan@toot.ale.gd]

@Edent I don't think I've come across a non-payment NFC "in the wild" since EMFCamp in 2024!

That aside, I have some programmable NFC discs that I have used for some plant tracking (I embed them into 3d printed labels). But I've not used them yet this year... it's one of those "seems like a nice techie idea, but it's really just a bit of a faff". Maybe if I was tracking 100s of plants it'd be more worth it. There's a chilli utoober called Chilli Chump who does this, but he does literally grow hundreds of plants across so many varieties... so it starts to cross the barrier into making sense then.

Anyway, perhaps a bit tangential lol...

[kevin@fedi.kevinisageek.org]

@Edent since the start of 2026, both are zero. Before then, I recall scanning a QR code at a Yo Sushi to order food but that was a while ago.

[giles@social.gilespaterson.com]

@Edent the only thing I use NFC for is my kids' Yoto players. The story cards are NFC and I use my phone to link podcasts and downloaded audio books to the "Make Your Own" cards.

[yvan@toot.ale.gd]

@Edent actually, since EMFCamp I think the last/only non-payment NFC use I can remember is using an app to scan my passport for UK immigration/visa services.

[sheddi@mstdn.party]

@Edent
QR: rarely but not zero.
NFC: excluding phone payments, and also excluding when my phone "helpfully" reads the NFC in my passport or library book if I put them next to one another, zero.

[benjamingeer@piaille.fr]

@Edent I use NFC every day to pay for things at POS terminals in shops

[bencurthoys@mastodon.social]

@Edent i was talking to someone at a conference last week who'd figured out a way of using conductive ink to print RFID antenna on tickets, if that's in your zone of interest.

[edent@mastodon.social]

@bencurthoys oooh! Yes, that does sound interesting. Although I suppose it still needs the chip part adding?

[derickr@phpc.social]

@spacehobo @Edent "I have a Fairphone 5 which has no capability for NFC" — I beg to differ.

I've been using that for as long as I had this phone. Payments, TfL, passport reading, it works fine.

[kianryan@oldbytes.space]

@Edent We use QR codes for cataloguing small people. We use a lot of QR codes.

[chris@nutmeg.social]

@Edent I use NFC discs as light switches like a lunatic.

I could buy IoT buttons, but NFC discs are dirt cheap and I'm lazy.

[derickr@phpc.social]

@yvan @Edent One of my friends bottled his own maple syrup. The bottle had an NFC chip under a label under the bottom going to a website.