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

[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.

[tootbrute@fedi.arkadi.one]

@Edent NFC 0. qr codes only for restaurant menus. Don't even use tap to pay.

[mms@mastodon.bsd.cafe]

@Edent "I have used neither in the last 6 months", so the the 3rd?

[lanodan@queer.hacktivis.me]

@Edent Well… both about the same, zero. My feature phone doesn't do either.

[woe2you@beige.party]

@Edent Voted QR, but if it weren't for Steam I'd never use QR codes at all, because I dislike my phone being sent to a link that I can't preview.

[johnmclear@mastodon.green]

@Edent I'm down for this poll It's defo unfair for me to comment tho, I'm too invested...

[bencurthoys@mastodon.social]

@Edent Yeah that was the point at which I stopped seeing the point. At least from a ticketing perspective.

If they had a way of printing an antenna that in some way encoded a number that would be the equivalent of a barcode then I could be into that, but just a static antenna seemed less useful to me. Basically what he was doing at a ticketing conference was wandering round saying "I've invented this thing, can anyone think of anything it's useful for?"

[bencurthoys@mastodon.social]

@Edent https://agitoasia.com/ is the outfit.

[johnmclear@mastodon.green]

@Edent IDK if you know this but..

1. The OS providers (apple/google) knee capped NFC then installed themselves as the gatekeepers it by smart-tap and VAS.

2. They OS providers are now trying to figure out a way to make NFC "useful" again with Aliro.

Essentially introducing the Secure Element to the phone hardware meant a huge moat was created between normal devs and the OS providers.

Ironically, my most recent phone doesn't even have NFC, I just use my ring to make payments..

[witewulf@cyberplace.social]

@Edent suspect this will be heavily biased by iOS effectively not supporting NFC, and QR being platform agnostic