This guide covers the current NFC Tools iOS experience for reading, writing, saving, erasing, and locking NFC tags.
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NFC Tools writes NDEF messages. Use a writable NDEF-compatible tag with enough capacity; once a tag is locked, it usually cannot be written again.
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Before you start
- Make sure your iPhone supports NFC reading and NFC Tools is open.
- Hold the top of your iPhone near the tag, with only one tag nearby at a time.
- Before writing, confirm that the tag is not read-only or already locked and that it has enough capacity.
- Metal surfaces, damaged tags, excessive distance, or multiple nearby tags can prevent detection.
Choosing an NFC tag
The capacities below come from the NXP NTAG test results in the reference article. User memory is the available memory for user data; the actual writable length is also affected by NDEF formatting, URL encoding, and the overhead of multiple records.
| Model |
User memory |
Best for |
| NTAG213 |
137 bytes |
Short text, short URLs, and simple contact details |
| NTAG215 |
492 bytes |
A balanced choice for most use cases |
| NTAG216 |
868 bytes |
Longer text, multiple records, or richer content |
1. Read an NFC tag
- On the Home screen, tap the scan area or Scan NFC tag.
- Hold the top of your iPhone near the NFC tag and keep it steady until the scan completes.
- After a successful scan, you can view:
- Tag Info: tag type, protocol, serial number, capacity, and writability.
- Tag Content: the tag's NDEF content.
- Tap Save Tag, name the scanned content, and save it to Saved Tags.
The current version can recognize common records such as Text, URL, Wi‑Fi, Contact, SMS, Location, Email, and Social.
2. Write an NFC tag
- Open Write from the Home screen.
- Tap Add Record and choose a record type:
- Text
- URL
- Contact
- SMS
- Wi‑Fi
- Location
- Email
- Social
- Enter the content and save the record. You can add multiple records, reorder them, or remove records you do not need.