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In Android,

  • Is it possible to get a list of all nearby NFC devices and choose one to connect to (in peer-to-peer mode)? Or poll through all of them one after another?

Thanks in advance, Cheers.

LonelyDeveloper
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1 Answers1

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That's not how NFC works.

  1. The NFC radio interface is designed for very short distances only. Typically, two devices need to (almost) touch each other (with their NFC inductive loop antennas stacked on top of each other) to discover each other.
  2. While NFC controllers technically support handling of multiple passive targets (e.g. NFC tags and other peer-to-peer devices in passive target mode), the Android system is currently designed to enumerate and handle only one target device.
Michael Roland
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  • Then what happens if I have one active android devices and I bring two passive tags "simultaneously" in the range? One tag is read and the other one ignored? – LonelyDeveloper Aug 31 '14 at 14:11
  • Thank you very much for your replies. So I guess this is an android implementation choice, right? Or is it imposed by some restrictions in the NFC specification? In case it is an android implementation choice then I must be able to override the functionality to read other nearby tags also. Am I right? – LonelyDeveloper Sep 01 '14 at 16:33
  • Read my answer: "While NFC controllers **technically support** handling of *multiple passive targets* [...] the Android system is **currently designed** to enumerate and *handle only one target* device" – Michael Roland Sep 01 '14 at 16:47