But are you able to save that in iOS?
Beats me. I donāt have any Apple product. I guess if you want to test if iOS reads it and does something useful with it, and you have a NTAG 216 or larger lying around, all it takes is writing the vcard to the tag and presenting it to the iPhone.
EDIT: I have a feeling I didnāt post this in the right thread. I just realized itās about iPhones. Sorry
But still to answer this, no. iOS does not support Vcards over NFC. As a workaround you can host it on a website, and put the link as an NDEF record.
Tested with a placeholder card, clicking the link will open safari then pop over with the contact card, theres a button there to save it to contacts.
Makes sense, but how are you hosting it, thatās the special sauce Iām lacking
Well, to be fair to Apple, itās highly non-standard. Android happens to support it, but they donāt have to, and they donāt have to do it that way either.
Grab linktree
Pick your poison. I have my own web hosting for my website so its just a file there. You could share it on Dropbox, post it to github, any number of file sharing websites.
If you combine it with linktree like Devil suggested it makes for a very clean result
Iām a fan of the tappy card and linktree - type layouts. They are pretty similar.
Just one more quick point, using a URL is a workaround, and it depends on the other phone having an active internet connection. Thatās a fair trade off for me, but something to keep in mind.
Also something I noticed when I was creating my vcf file, the one my Android phone exported would not work on iPhones, and the one I made for iPhones did not work on my Android device. I had to generate an iphone compatible vcf file I think version 4.0 from a website. My Android phone only accepted the vcf file version 2.1. I then took both files and hosted them on my website, made a landing page for different information I wanted to share, and had to create 2 separate links to download my contact card for iOS and for Android. Definitely not ideal but a good work around for now.
If anyone knows a vcf version or format that works across both OSās please let me know.
Iām hoping once the new version of iOS launches and iPhone 12 is out there will be more compatibility for NFC reading, being Apple seems to be putting focus on this now.
vCard 2.1 is the least common denominator. Everything under the sun that understands vCards reads it. Subsequent versionsā¦ well, the higher you go, the more of a crapshoot it becomes. Since there is no technical advantage and little informational advantage offered by later versions, you can safely and happily default to 2.1 for best compatibility.
I added the details i wanted to a new contact on iOS, then chose Share Contact -> Save to Files. Itās worked perfectly on every device Iāve tried so far.
Whatās a good way to host the files? I donāt have my own website like others
I think I tried a direct google drive link and it wonāt work correctly, because it makes you jump they the google hoops before giving you the file
A couple of posts above
@Devilclarke and @rvenfrost suggest something like tappy card and linktr.ee for this purpose
I initially hated the ālanding pageā concept, but the tappy looked nice enough and brought me aroundā¦ pulled the trigger on a tsppy
Do Tappy or Linktree act as redirectors? Or said another way, do the links they sell point to a Tappy or Linktree server?
I kind of understand the Tappy business: they sell business cards really. The linking thing they tie the cards to is kind of trivial. But Linktree? I donāt get it. Direct links areā¦ well, there. And if you need a redirector, there are plenty of them out there that are completely free.
Can a Tappy or Linktree user explain what service you get for the money exactly?
Way I look at it, I paid for a simple single url I can link to that has quickly accessible links
Okay so they sell you a bit of space to put more links in. Thatās a service.
Linktree donāt sell you anything physical, just a link redirector that holds multiple links.
Instagram only allows one URL in your bio, so it was created as a āsolutionā to that mainly for companies and brands that want to redirect you EVERYWHERE.
They offer a free plan with their logo at the bottom to get you hooked and establish themselves as the standard on Instagram, then offer a paid plan when you want to customise it to match your brand, or the marketing team want better analytics on what links are clicked.
tappyās is tied to a physical card as well which has NFC and a QR code for older iphones. Itās not necessary, but it has come in handy for me already. Itās nothing super fancy, but I liked their web layout enough to pay for it and figured it would be a handy backup if I A) decide to link my implant to something else or B) canāt get it (the implant) to work for some reason.
I saw it as me paying to be lazy and have a nice neat setup that I didnāt have to make if we are being real.