This Thursday, June 22, 2023, the NFC Forum, the organization that standardizes contactless technology between different manufacturers, unveiled its technological roadmap. Executive Director Mike McCamon outlined all of the key changes that are expected to take effect over the next two to five years.

Created in 2004, the NFC Forum oversees the use of wireless technology, used in particular for mobile payments. Quick and easy to use, this technology is increasingly appealing to the French. Democratized during the pandemic, “contactless” now represents more than one in two card payments, according to the Observatory for the Security of Payment Means.

However, last Thursday, the 400 member companies of the Forum made public three key changes regarding contactless payment. What are they ?

The NFC Forum has announced an update to increase contactless payment distance. Today, NFC connections are limited to a range of 5 mm. But litters four to six times greater are currently being studied. In other words, the payment distance should drop from 5mm to 3cm within two years.

You will soon no longer have to stick your smartphone to the payment terminal to pay for your purchases: it will only be necessary to approach it a few centimeters. The increased payment range will make transactions faster and easier. This should also reduce the number of payment failures. With this update, the NFC Forum wants to improve the experience of contactless users. And this improvement is not the only one planned.

The NFC Forum roadmap plans to turn any phone into a payment terminal. It will thus be possible to pay from one smartphone to another, without going through a conventional terminal (if the phones are equipped with an NFC chip). You can thus directly reimburse your friends or, for example, collect the fruit of a transaction between individuals at a flea market.

This technology was already available on iPhones through Apple’s Tap to Pay. It will now be available on Android. The executive director of the NFC Forum, Mike McCamon, aims to democratize transactions made by contactless payment. Another novelty announced should also participate. What is it ?

The NFC Forum wants to implement the “multiple purpose tap”: which means that with a single contactless validation, a single gesture, you could perform several actions. It would then be possible to validate transport tickets or show tickets for an entire family with a single use of the telephone. Another example, you could scan your loyalty card and pay in one go at checkout.

This new feature would represent a significant time saving for consumers: one of the objectives of the NFC Forum. “As NFC technology becomes more and more present in our daily lives, our planned features have the potential to significantly improve the way we pay and receive payments,” said Mike McCamon, executive director of the NFC Forum.