Technology
What is NFC and how do I disable it? The N symbol explained
The status bar at the top of your smartphone is used to display a lot of important information. Most people will know it as the place where you can see battery percentage, signal strength, notification icons, and whether you’re connected to Wi-Fi or Bluetooth, among other things.
However, there’s another icon you might see there: an unusual-looking N. This stands for NFC, or Near Field Communication.
What is NFC?
NFC is a technology that uses radio waves to transmit data wirelessly over short distances.
Its primary use on smartphones is for contactless payments, be it Apple Pay, Google Pay or Samsung Pay.
However, NFC can also be used to quickly share files between devices or use NFC-enabled accessories. Modern passports also support NFC, allowing you to perform additional verification from your phone.
However, that doesn’t mean you want to keep NFC enabled all the time. Allowing you to pay for everything with a quick tap can pose a security risk, while sometimes negatively impacting battery life.
How to disable NFC
There’s no way to disable NFC on an iPhone, so you’ll instead have to disable the features that depend on it: NameDrop, AirDrop, SharePlay, and Apple Pay. The only way to achieve the latter is to delete all your cards from the app.
But on almost every Android phone, the option is available to turn it on and off at any time. We’ll be using the Nothing Phone (2) for the purposes of this tutorial, but the method will be largely the same as that of a handset made by the likes of Samsung, Google, Xiaomi, OnePlus or another company.
Navigate to settings
Dominik Tomaszewski / Foundry
Open the “Settings” app on your Android phone. You can usually find it in the app drawer or by swiping down from the top of the screen and tapping the gear icon.
Find connection settings
Dominik Tomaszewski / Foundry
In the “Settings” menu, look for “Connections”, “Connections & Network”, “Network & Internet” or something similar. For example, on the Nothing Phone (2) you see above, this section is under ‘Connected devices’ > ‘Connection preferences’. Tap it to continue.
Access NFC settings
Dominik Tomaszewski / Foundry
Within that section there should be an option labeled “NFC”. Tap it to open the NFC settings menu.
Disable NFC
Dominik Tomaszewski / Foundry
Next to NFC you should see a toggle switch. Simply tap the switch to turn it off.
After you disable NFC, it’s a good idea to check that it is indeed disabled. Check the status bar at the top of your screen. The N symbol, which indicates NFC, should no longer be visible.
