Gadgetory

hi this is the Android authority Channel I'm April sharing forms an important part of our human experience in fact as a smartphone user I've been sharing pictures music and videos wirelessly your Bluetooth and Wi-Fi direct sometimes it works at other times it doesn't another technology near field communication or NFC lets you share stuff too just by tapping your device's back against the back of another NFC capable device how do you share stuff via NFC in this video I'll show you how to use NFC to share data and files anti program NFC tags I'll be using various Android devices all of which have NFC the steps I mention here may or may not work for your device so that you can use NFC your device needs to have NFC capabilities how do you check your device for it one way to check it is by looking at your device's backplate some devices like this one have an NFC certification sticker on the back plate here's another device with the NFC logo another way is to go to the settings menu under Wireless and networks tap on more you should see NFC and Android Beam among the other options once you've confirmed that your phone or tablet does have NFC you also need to activate the NFC chip to be able to share data through it just tap the NFC option on the menu Android Beam will also automatically activate both options need to be on otherwise you will be unable to use NFC properly both the NFC chip and Android Beam allow you to swap data between two capable devices just by tapping their bags together through NFC you can share certain types of data such as photos contact information website URLs videos and apps you only need to beam the data to the recipient device to successfully beam data both NFC and Android Beam should be active on the sender and receiver devices next select the content that you want to share ideally the receiving phone should be on its home screen put the devices back together like this on the sender phone you'll see the display shrinked into a thumbnail and the words touch to beam shown at the top tap the thumbnail to beam it when beaming is successful you will receive a notification like this or an app will launch on the receiving phone like this this is the typical procedure when beaming files and content you'll notice this procedure used repeatedly in this guide now that you have an idea of the general way to being content via NFC let's try it out by sharing an image sharing a photo or image via NFC is extremely easy first open the image this is usually done in the gallery app then place the back of your device against the back of the recipient device like this both devices will make a sound and vibrate slightly indicating that the devices have made contact on the sender device you'll see a thumbnail of the image window and the words touch to beam on top your image file is now ready for beaming tap on the screen to beam it don't separate the devices until you've tapped to be the receiving device we'll get a notification that says incoming beam no need to do anything here just wait for it to complete once beaming is complete you can access the image by pulling down the notification shade and tapping on beam complete or by going to the gallery app unfortunately not all NFC enabled devices are cooperative for example some phones like the Xperia T refuse to share images with phones like the HTC One X this leads me to believe that NFC may not be the best way to swap images and photos I've had better experience using Bluetooth and Wi-Fi direct you know through NFC you can also share apps not the actual app files themselves just the apps page on the Google Play Store to share an app just launch the app then place both sender and recipient devices back-to-back until you feel the familiar vibration and hear the familiar NFC sound I'll show you how to be my favorite game app arcane legends to my One X just launch the game tap both backs touch to beam and voila the other device opens the arcane legends page on the Play Store that was quick right you can also share an open web page easily with other devices you can do it right from your browser window I'm going to share this android authority article so all I have to do is this touch to beam and voila make sure that both devices are connected to the Internet you can share both YouTube videos and local videos to sharing a YouTube video is similar to webpage sharing just open the video in the YouTube app tap device backs like this touch to beam and there it goes both devices need to be connected to the Internet of course beaming a local video file is done in a similar way just open the video file usually in the gallery app tap both devices touch to beam wonderful contact information is also one of the most frequently shared content type you can beam contact info through NFC to it's super easy open the contact info page tab the devices backs like this tap the screen to beam the contact card tada aside from beaming small chunks of data to another device NFC introduces another world of convenience through locational NFC tags or stickers such tags or stickers contain microchips that store information readable by NFC capable devices just tap your NFC device on a tag and it will read the instructions on that tag tags can contain website URLs contact information and even device setting profiles that can be activated on a device so you can stick such tags in various places for example stick a tag to your office desk and tap on it to activate your devices office profile settings or stick a tag to a poster and tap your device on it to quickly open a website to read data from or write data to such NFC tags you'll need an NFC tag reading or tag writing app the Optimus G for instance comes pre-loaded with such an app known as the LG Tag Plus app tags programmed using this app can only be read by devices that have this same app installed I have here several MMC tags these are programmable tags that came with my Optimus G I can program an NFC tag to open a web page configure my phone settings or even send a text just by tapping my phone against the tag so for instance I want this NFC tag to set my phone to vibrate mode turn on Wi-Fi and turn off Bluetooth this configuration is perfect for office use so I can just stick this tag to a corner of my desk and tap my phone on it upon arriving I'll need to program this NFC tag first for that I'm going to use a free app called the NFC task launcher app from the Google Play Store it's very flexible in NFC tags management it's not bad specific either unlike LG Algie tag plus a poor so nice Xperia smart tags here's how the NFC task launcher app looks like essentially I'm going to use it to save on to this NFC sticker a set of instructions that I'd like my phone to perform whenever I'd have my phone against this NFC tag B AB has default configurations grouped according to potential use locations such as inside the car at home and so on in my case I'm most likely to find the closest configuration under the office profile so I select it and configure the actions under it first I want the phone to use vibrant mode so I set the sound profile to vibrate then enable Wi-Fi I still need one more instruction for turning off Bluetooth but it's not here by default so I need to add a new action like this and define the new action for turning off Bluetooth there let me just review this list quickly vibrate phone and able Wi-Fi Bluetooth off great everything's ready now tap the save and write button then touch the tag with a phone's bag to save the data to the tag you'll get a confirmation on the screen if the data writing succeeds time to test it now let's check my phone's current settings first Lu tooth is on Wi-Fi is off and my sound profile is set to ring at full volume now I'm imagining that I just arrived at the office and I want my phone to go into Office mode right now so I tap my phone against my NFC tag here and tada instant office mode according to my personal specifications all I need to do now is confirm that I want to apply the changes will this break on another phone let's find out yep that works and it will work on any other device just as long as it devices NFC capable and the NFC task launcher app is installed on it let me show you another example using a tablet this time for now let's set aside this office profile tag and create a new one for use at home when I get home I want my tablet to open the Android authority website connect to my home Wi-Fi and set the sound profile to normal I'll program this other tag using NFC task launcher I'll be lucky with the home profile I guess so I'll select it here I'll set the sound profile to normal and the Wi-Fi to enable since I also want to open a URL I need to enable this option and provide the Android authority URL here as before save the instructions to the tag and touch a tag with the tablets back there let's go home and switch from office mode to home mode currently my tablet is using office settings with my Wi-Fi off tap my tablet against my home profile tag and voila the settings are set now I don't have to worry about setting my profiles manually when I reach home I can create such profile tags for use in various places like in the car in my bedroom - these NFC tags provide a lot of convenience Near Field Communication Technology isn't new technology and developers are still exploring the many ways to use it in the world of Android tablets and smartphones it has already found some usefulness in the form of quick sharing of content as well as secure bills payment the technology still has a lot of possible uses and it's only a matter of time before those other uses can be fully explored and implemented in this video I've shown you how to share content on your device to another NFC capable device I hope you find NFC useful on your Android device for more Android news reviews and guides visit android authority comm and subscribe to our youtube channel i'm April until next time and remember the power of Android is yours