UPM RFID and SimpleNFC launch TapThatTag NFC tag Android app

UPM RFID and SimpleNFC launch TapThatTag Android app which helps users select the exact NFC tag they need effortlessly

UPM RFID and SimpleNFC (the company behind CustomerIn) have launched an Android app called TapThatTag that teaches users all about NFC tags. The two active companies in the NFC space have got together and launched a new Android app that allows users to pick the exact NFC tag they need for a specific project. When it comes to NFC tags, it can be a mine field to know what you need. There are NFC tags designed for indoor use, NFC tags designed for outdoor use and different NFC tags for stickers and smartposters. That just covers a few areas of NFC tags and doesn’t even touch on memory size, whether the tag is rewritable, whether an admin can lock the data on the tag, or even whether the data needs to be encoded at the factory and then remains unwritable from that point on. As an emerging industry, NFC tags have spawned different tags for different environments with different capabilities in different use cases. Okay, I think we’ve made our point that unless you are used to dealing with NFC tags, it can be a little confusing picking the right tag for a specific job. TapThatTag app guides you through the process.

UPM RFID and SimpleNFC TapThatTag Android app specifics

TapThatTag is a simple Android app that acts as a wizard selection tool. We’ve included a couple of screen shots from the app that will start to give you the idea of what it does, but let us explain a little further. The process of selecting NFC tags has been stripped down to a three-step process. Simply pick the memory size you need, you can pick from UL, UL-C or 1K Classic. Pick your product name or size, you can pick UPM RFID’s Racetrack, BullsEye, MiniTrack or Block tag types and then pick your delivery format. The delivery format that the TapThatTag app refers to is whether you want a paper NFC tag or wet inlays. Whatever you need, you can be assured that the TapThatTag Android app will only allow you to pick from NXP Mifare 14443A NFC tags so you know they meet the NFC Forums format specifications and will work with practically all NFC phones and reader / writers.

“SimpleNFC.com was created as a one stop shop for NFC developers. Developers will find NFC tags and everything they need to quickly write apps with NFC technology. Using our platform, developers will save many hours of research, testing and coding – and consequently deliver NFC apps a lot earlier,” explains Fred Rego, President, CustomerIn™.

“With their SimpleNFC platform, CustomerIn™ is acting on a vision of new NFC applications which are taking advantage of the resurgence of millions of NFC consumer devices, the majority of them smartphones. Location-aware mobile solutions offer interesting possibilities for consumers and business owners, but until now, there haven’t been formalized offerings available. CustomerIn™ is changing that,” says Jan Svoboda, Sales and Marketing Director, Americas, UPM RFID.

A final screen in the TapThatTag app allows you to select your quantity with a minimum as low as five NFC tags in some cases, pick the country where you want your NFC tags delivered and let UPM RFID know if you have any custom requests, hit send and we assume a member of their team will be in contact with you. If you are wondering what a wet inlay is, we can help. There are various ways to purchase NFC tags and paper, PET or wet inlay are just a few. In essence, a wet inlay is an antenna (which all NFC tags have) bonded to a polyethylene terephthalate (PET) layer which can be delivered “wet” which means attached to a pressure sensitive liner.

TapThatTag NFC tag selection Android app summary

This little TapThatTag Android app barely breaks 258k in size. It isn’t going to change your life or bring you breakfast in bed but it is very useful. If ever you need to work out what type of NFC tag you need for a project, TapThatTag is probably one of the simplest ways to do it and you might even get an NFC tag education en-route. The app is free and is available on the Android market, so give it a try and let us know what you think. If you want to give the UPM RFID and SimpleNFC’s TapThatTag app a try, here is the link.