Inside the stand
An NFC chip is a tiny antenna and memory with no battery. When a phone comes within a couple of centimetres, the phone powers the chip and reads what is stored: in our case a short web address pointing at your join page. The chip holds nothing about the customer and does not know who tapped it.
The common chip, NTAG213, stores about 140 characters. That is enough for a web address and nothing else, which is a feature: there is nothing on it to steal.
Which phones read it
Every iPhone from the iPhone XS onwards reads NFC tags in the background: hold the top of the phone near the stand and a banner appears. Nearly every Android phone of the last eight years does the same, though some have NFC switched off by default. That is why a QR code is printed on the stand too: pointing the camera at it opens the same page.
Where to put it
- Where people wait, not where they pay. The queue is where a customer has ten seconds and a phone in hand. The payment moment is too busy.
- At hand height, facing the customer. A stand lying flat is tapped half as often as one standing up.
- One per counter, one per table for restaurants. Each stand reports its own taps so you learn where joins come from.
- Stickers in bags and on receipts for takeaway and delivery.
Security
A chip can be locked at encoding so nobody can rewrite it, and ours are. If a stand is lost, you mark it lost in the dashboard and the address stops working within a second. The chip cannot be re-pointed to another programme.
Your stand, printed and encoded
Included with every plan, in the post within three working days.
Questions
Can I print my own?+
Yes. We can send you the link to print a QR, or encode chips you own. Most venues take the included stand because it is already done.
Does the chip wear out?+
No moving parts, no battery, rated for well over a hundred thousand reads. The printed acrylic will outlast the chip's relevance.