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September is almost here, and Apple is about to release its new iPhone.

According to previous years' experience, by this time, a lot of leaks about the new iPhone will appear on the Internet.

Just two days ago, it was revealed that on the iOS 18.1 system equipped with the iPhone 17 series, "developers will soon be able to use secure elements to provide NFC data exchange capabilities within apps."

Let me translate it for you: From now on, the iPhone's NFC will no longer be exclusive to Apple's own wallet. Third-party applications can also use it to implement functions such as card swiping.

For example, there was a shower app that was criticized by college students because it could not obtain NFC permissions and could not produce hot water by swiping the phone. It could only use Bluetooth to control the water valve.

Now, if it wants, it can upgrade and provide users with a virtual card in the mobile app, which they can swipe on the machine to use hot water.

It's just that for a feature that Android has already gotten tired of, developers still have to pay Apple...

As for what everyone is most concerned about, whether iPhone will support access control and elevator swiping in the future.

The announcement did not specify whether users can copy the card to their iPhone. So it is not certain whether iPhone users can use their own wallets to swipe access control and elevators like Android users in the future.

But even this seemingly mysterious news still made everyone excited.

After all, the NFC on the iPhone is so damn difficult to use, it can even be said to be a defective product.

The iPhone 6 released in 2014 has NFC, but it can only be used to swipe bank cards and transportation cards. Even so, you still have to contact the card issuer in your wallet and wait for the institution and Apple to agree before it can be realized.

As for access cards and elevator cards, forget it. So you can see iPhone users racking their brains and coming up with a bunch of ways to use iPhone to swipe access control.

Some people directly put a physical card in the phone case, while others copy the access card to a blank card sticker and then stick it on the phone case. These are the old version of basic operations.

An advanced way to play is to open a transportation card in your wallet, force the property management to write it into the access control system, and swipe the transportation card as an access card.

The most outrageous thing is that one of our colleagues bought a mobile phone case with an NFC chip, used an Android phone to write the access card information into the mobile phone case, then put the mobile phone case on his iPhone and used it to swipe the access card...

To use the words of an “Android girl” around me, you “Apple princesses” can be so “hardworking” to use your mobile phone to scan the door access control, it’s too abstract…

Let’s not talk about access control. Apple has also been slow in implementing some NFC-related functions.

Friends who have played with NFC should know that you can buy NFC card stickers on Taobao for a few dollars. After buying them, you can use the NFC on your phone to read the information inside, and you can also write things into them.

Tony had used this kind of sticker at home before. He used his mobile phone to write my home's Wi-Fi password on the NFC sticker. When guests came to my house, he could read the password by touching the sticker with his mobile phone.

Even though it is such a simple function, Apple did not bring it to market until iOS 11 released in 2017.

On the other hand, Android, let alone NFC stickers, even access control and elevator card swiping were supported as early as Android 4.4 in 2013.

I guess a big reason why Apple is so hesitant is that it feels that NFC will become unsafe if it does all these things, so it would rather sacrifice some functions and keep a tight control on NFC.

To this end, Apple has arranged a very rigid "Secure Element" (SE) solution, using a separate chip to manage the security of NFC. As long as you use an iPhone instead of a physical card, it must first pass through this chip.

Not only that, Apple only allows its own "Wallet" to access this security chip, and other applications are not allowed to touch it.

The advantage is that security is guaranteed. The disadvantage is that everything is strictly controlled, developers cannot play a role, and Apple itself is lying flat and not developing new NFC functions. Therefore, the NFC on the iPhone can only be used to swipe POS machines and subway gates, and cannot do anything else.

But then again, do we have to be so strict to be safe?

Let's take a look at Android. Compared to Apple's approach of restricting NFC with a security chip, Android is much more relaxed.

Even if a security chip is installed, it does not cover everything. Some less sensitive NFC communications can be implemented using the operating system.

The left side shows the solution for Android phones with security chips, and the right side shows the solution without security chips.

The security chip is also open to developers. As long as they comply with regulations, third-party applications can use the security chip to store sensitive information and develop more interesting NFC gameplay.

As for security, it can also be guaranteed by the operating system, which can fully control which applications can communicate with external card swiping devices and never let sensitive information run wild.

This is what Apple's old rival Samsung did, and it started with the Galaxy S5 in 2014.

Samsung's security chip is only responsible for some sensitive NFC communications, such as encrypting payment data when swiping a bank card.

It doesn't care about the rest, such as swiping access cards and elevators, which do not require such high security.

Apple can actually learn this more flexible solution, although subjectively it doesn't feel as reliable as the single-handed approach of using security chips.

But in recent years, we haven't heard of any Android phone NFC security issues. Samsung's shipments are not much worse than Apple's. If there were any problems, the EU and the US would definitely be more anxious than us and would have punished Samsung long ago.

So to put it bluntly, security is just an excuse Apple uses to delay.

Fortunately, after so many years, Apple has finally come to its senses. With iOS 18.1, the iPhone's control over NFC has finally been relaxed a little.

Third-party applications can also simulate physical cards. Users can also choose to change the card swiping application that is invoked by double-clicking the power button from the official wallet to a third-party app, and use the third-party app by default to swipe the card.

However, all simulated physical card behaviors must still go through the security chip. . .

Apple also promised to invest a lot of resources to ensure that third-party apps are regulated by Apple's proprietary hardware and software technology when simulating physical cards, which can be regarded as an extra layer of protection while being open.

However, if third-party application developers want to use the function of simulating physical cards, they must first sign a security agreement with Apple and pay Apple, which is a bit greedy.

The cards that can be simulated by third parties are company access cards, hotel room cards, and student ID cards. These are not bank cards or credit cards, and do not involve monetary transactions, nor is there much room for making money. It is really unfair for them to try to get a piece of the pie.

Well, it’s better to have something than nothing.

Although ordinary iPhone users cannot directly copy the access card to the iPhone, they can wait for third-party NFC gadgets to add the function of simulating physical cards, and then cover the access card and elevator control card of your community.

If you really can’t wait, you can also apply to become an iOS application developer, write an NFC card swiping software yourself, pay some money to Guozi, and then swipe the card however you want at the access control and elevator.

It might just be a bit hairy.

Then again, although Apple's NFC has many limitations, it also has its good points.

For example, when swiping bus cards, the NFC of Guozi was not only adapted early, but also supported many cities. It can be used on buses in major cities in various countries around the world. There are probably not many companies in the world that can do this.

We can also look forward to seeing what developers around the world can come up with after iOS 18.1 opens up NFC.

Wait, this time when NFC is open to developers, China is not included? Oh, that’s OK.

Written by: Shiang

edit：Milo & Noodles

Art: Huan Yan

Image, source：

Apple, Google, Taobao, Xiaohongshu @ Girls' Growth Manual, @ The guy who makes access control cards