A technology standard for exchanging the data between a source mobile and another mobile device over a short distance wirelessly was named Bluetooth. The Bluetooth was developed in 1989 by Nils Rydbeck. It was the first-ever creation of wireless data transfer; at that time and is currently in use. Bluetooth is a near field communicator and only shares a few features with it.
Coming to other technology such as NFC which is also a wireless data transfer technology. And the only difference between the Bluetooth and NFC is the distance. Bluetooth can work up to 30 feet whereas the NFC can work to a distance of 20cm.
But also, when you do an NFC transfer than it will be consuming some amount of battery as compared to the Bluetooth transfer. NFC is actually said to be faster than Bluetooth. It’s actually 10 times faster than Bluetooth.
NFC which stands for Near Field Communication is a wireless technology that pairs with a single device at a time. The data transfer rate is observed to be about 400kbps. This technology is generally used for money transfers between two devices which are collecting and transferring the information.
NFC is very easy to use and can be used by anyone. Bluetooth, on the other hand, is the very trusted and dedicated form of data transfer which is very secure including banking payments.
We at Endive Software have built a payment application based on NFC to our client. This app allows users to send money directly to the merchant by bringing two devices in touch.
NFC is used for the basic and simple amount of data transfer. It runs on the simple principle of sending information over radio waves –RFID which stands for Radio Frequency Identification. Well, the devices are needed to be kept nearly close to each other in order to complete the transfer.
Bluetooth is a WPAN which has a range of 5 or more meters. The speed of Bluetooth is enhanced to be around 2mbps which is quite a good rate of data transfer wirelessly with a longer handshake time.
NFC and Bluetooth are very different technologies used for the same work which is data transfer. NFC is a lower range bandwidth provider, while Bluetooth is a larger ranger bandwidth provider.
Both the technologies are used for the same purpose both have the same kind of functionalities. It could not be said that Bluetooth is better than NFC or NFC is better than Bluetooth.
Let’s understand the factors and the situation where NFC is better than Bluetooth.
- NFC doesn’t require pairing with other devices that Bluetooth does. This makes NFC faster than Bluetooth. NFC can be used as an anonymous technology that doesn’t have any kind of record that Bluetooth has after sharing any kind of data through it.
- NFC can be used to make payments.
Understanding the Similarities between NFC & Bluetooth:
- Both technologies are used in communication and data transfer.
- Again the speed & efficiency of both Bluetooth & NFC differ but they are good for better transfer of information over very short distances.
- Both belong to the wireless forms of communication.
Differentiating between NFC & Bluetooth:
- Operating Range is Different for both the technologies. For NFC it is desperately close and for Bluetooth, it’s nearly larger than the range of NFC.
- Power consumption for NFC is very less than compared to Bluetooth.
- Usability for the technologies is way simple and basic, for NFC pairing with other devices is much simpler and for Bluetooth, it might take few seconds to connect or sometimes it doesn’t connect due to some technical glitches or faults.
- When we talk about how much safe it is to use NFC and Bluetooth than the conclusive result would be NFC is safer than Bluetooth. Because the NFC requires a very close range than Bluetooth does as the phones need to be in contact with each other.
- Talking about the speed of data transfer, the NFC is better than Bluetooth, NFC is 10 times faster than Bluetooth is.
If you are running a payment mobile application, NFC is the best option to increase the overall experience of your users. Here we can help you with hassle-free integration of NFC in your payment application.
The technology used in NFC is Radio waves and in the Bluetooth is RFID with a smartcard infrastructure. The comm. frequency in NFC is about 13.5 MHz and for Bluetooth, it’s 2.4 GHz. NFC is highly intuitive as compared to the Bluetooth, in NFC you just need to transfer the Data and while transferring the data with Bluetooth you need to search for the device to pair your device with and select the one to transfer the data.
BLE which stands for Bluetooth Low Energy is the latest development in the Bluetooth technology which means it’s the update for the power consumption of the device while transferring the data using Bluetooth. Now with this update, the power consumption is lesser than NFC.
It might happen in the future that the Bluetooth and NFC could work together for better user transmission.
NFC based app development & Bluetooth Based app development
You can also go for mobile application development based on these technologies. These applications could be a data transfer app or anything else based on NFC & Bluetooth.
What does a user need in an application based on NFC? It’s just that the application should be able to detect NFC tags if the device goes nearby some other devices or chips. This would need some NFC enabled permissions in the application which will helps in parsing the data from the NFC tag.
The NFC is successful in the field of mobile payments. When it comes to mobile payments the NFC comes in handy. Applications like Samsung Pay, Apple Pay, & Android Pay are the biggest applications for payments using NFC.
NFC Payment Apps are such innovative technology as compared to Bluetooth. It’s set to beat down the mobile made payments or any other payments made through cell phones. NFC could be effective for data transfer but it is developed for an entirely different set of working applications.
Well getting such a good insight about the NFC application now let’s some about the Bluetooth, what? Insight I mean, Bluetooth technology is irreplaceable we all know that it doesn’t matter where the Bluetooth is used or not used but this can’t be replaced by NFC because you can add NFC chips everywhere in every hardware like for example in cars you don’t have NFC in cars because you don’t have to transfer any data out. You have Bluetooth in the cars to connect your phone and listen to music over it, cast your mobile screen over it or make a call you need Bluetooth based applications. Going for Bluetooth based application is sometimes profitable not for any individual but also for the Automobile industry to build such automobile applications based on Bluetooth.
Thoughts:
Concluding the fact that depending upon the situation both the technologies are used NFC although is somewhere better than Bluetooth in terms of its working efficiency but every technology also has its own disadvantages both the technologies have their advantages and disadvantages on their own respect
