NFC Task Launcher

Now that smartphones with built-in near-field communication (NFC) are — after years of promise — finally becoming commonplace (although Apple will say otherwise), we’re finally beginning to see interesting and useful apps pop up.

NFC Task Launcher is just such an app. The idea behind it is that you can use an NFC tag to trigger an action on your phone — from enabling ‘silent’ mode (put a tag on your bedside table), to checking into a venue (if you’re one of those who checks in to work), to texting your other half (good on your dashboard), or joining a friend’s Wi-Fi network.

The tags (or connections to Bluetooth or Wi-Fi networks) can trigger just about any action, or set of actions, that you’d want. The developers claim that they’re constantly adding more and are open to suggestions (visit the web site at nfctags.tagstand.com).

Tags can be reprogrammed using the NFC Writer companion app, or read-only tags associated with Tagstand’s cloud service, so no matter who reads them, the same action will be performed.

This concept will already be familiar to users of Locale or Tasker, but neither natively support NFC events just yet. On a side note, it doesn’t really make a great deal of sense to run two automation apps in tandem, so Tasker/Locale users should perhaps check out Locale NFC Plugin, which gives both apps the ability to react to NFC tags).