How NFC and Bluetooth Can Change the Prospects of Your Mobile App Development

Mobile App Development

Today numerous digital computing devices are communicating through various communication protocols chiefly falling into wired and wireless categories and major concerns for a mobile app development team. However, end-users hardly like connections and leaning towards the most on wireless communications among the devices for the sake of attaining the maximum mobility. Therefore, wireless communication protocols are trendy and growing further.

Communication Protocols for Digital Devices for Mobile App Development

The eminent wireless protocols are RFID (Radio Frequency Identification), Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and NFC.

Wi-Fi Technology

Wi-Fi, in the real sense, developed to replace the high-speed cables of the wired Local Area Network (LAN) to generate wireless LAN (WLAN). Therefore, Wi-Fi is the access point centered, so it is establishing the asymmetric client-server or master-slave connections in high/long range.

Bluetooth Technology

Bluetooth is ideal protocol for the symmetrical connections to paired two devices in lower range compared to Wi-Fi. Thus, Bluetooth is an ideal candidate when short-range communication needed for portable devices without many configurations and in an ad-hoc manner.

NFC Technology

As its name indicates, it is absolutely for the short distance communication between the devices. Therefore, when two NFC-enabled devices come into the physical contact or very close to each other, rapid data exchanges taking place.  

NFC in a Nutshell for Mobile App Development

Initially, NFC was in use for the devices where one device has an Internet connection, and another is devoid of it but want to transfer/exchange data. Today two mobile devices exchange photos or files using NFC and save their Internet bills as well as the long procedure to access each other. In a broad sense, NFC-enabled devices can work in following modes:

1. NFC P2P (Peer-to-Peer) communication as described above in the case of the photos exchanges.
2. NFC card emulation where smartphones like NFC-enabled devices to work as the smart cards enable critical transactions like payment, ticket booking, etc.
3. NFC readers or writers to read info stored in NFC Tags and facilitate better than QR Code or barcode scanners without requiring a dedicated scanning or reading app.

Technically, NFC requires an initiator and a target to exchange the data. When an active device powered a passive device or card/chip using its electromagnetic field, it becomes the passive mode. Whereas two active devices actively exchange data with each other using near field protocol (NFC), that becomes the passive mode. Fortunately, passive mode is much useful for the mobile developers to create awesome mobile applications involving NFC technologies. However, payments and passport like functions are passive by nature, but highly useful and the most applicable to the present moment.

Applications of NFC as the Prospects for Mobile App Development Team

Financial Apps for Transactions: Just like credit/debit cards, NFC-enabled smartphones like mobile and smart watches like wearable devices can use the contactless payment system.

Mobile Gaming Apps:

With NFC, mobile game developers enable multiplayer gaming mode without relying on another mode of connections.

Social Networking Apps:

For social networking applications, NFC offers quick and secure file sharing in P2P and other modes where the share of contacts, photos, and videos are possible directly.

NFC Tags:

Just like QR Code and barcode, NFC tags used in authentication as well as small data storage for critical info. Therefore, passport authorities are on the way to create mobile apps that let its authenticated users pass through ports without physical boarding pass just using their mobile devices with such apps. NFC tags are ten times cheaper than Bluetooth enabled tags and used only with high proximity to mitigate much of the security concerns. In short, NFC is useful for mobile app developers working on the mobile app development for

• Smart e-transactions
• Smart ticketing
• Smart keys
• Smart Gov. or public services
• Parking pay
• Traffic alerts
• Aids in retail shopping by NFC tags on products
• Beaming files

Bluetooth in a Nutshell for Mobile App Development

As we know that, Bluetooth has infinite applications in various fields and domains in conjunctions with mobile apps. Among those all, recent trends in shopping with Beacon enabled mobile apps are with high prospects for the retail industries. Apple’s iBeacon and Android’s Beacon applications are favorite in event management, highly crowded places like airports, train stations, metro stations, etc. Besides these, with the combination of GPS-enabled real-time (RTLS) mobile applications, Beacon technologies enable highly personalized marketing, shopping, and advertising activities in unimaginative ways. Bluetooth is offering unprecedented advantages for the medical and healthcare industries, as wearable devices can catch Bluetooth signals generated by the implanted sensors in and on the body. Thus, it makes data transactions easy between the implants and wearables as well as mobile applications that aid in the communication loop.

Conclusion:

If your business is related to any of the described category and you have ideas to exploit the upcoming NFC and Bluetooth technologies in your mobile application development project, you need to consult the capable mobile app development company or a team of mobile app developers before doing anything. Fortunately, Addon Solutions is a capable team with updated knowledge regarding NFC and Bluetooth technologies and their applications/implementations in mobile app development. Thus, it is good for you and your business to have a brief meeting and some useful conferences for your next mobile app development project. Of course, we have omitted tons of applications of both technologies: NFC and Bluetooth due to space constraints but would like to hear about any new development in the market from our active readers through the comment box below.