The NFC Forum, the global standards body responsible for Near Field Communication (NFC) technology, has officially announced its latest roadmap for the development of future NFC standards and technical capabilities.
The updated strategy outlines key focus areas for the upcoming years, emphasizing significant increases in data transfer speeds, advancements in security architectures, and the evolution of wireless charging capabilities.
Collaborative Industry Development
The roadmap was developed through a collaborative process involving the NFC Forum membership and industry partners. The goal of this initiative is to ensure that future standards address anticipated market requirements.
The strategic direction was steered by the NFC Forum Board members, which includes representatives from major technology and semiconductor stakeholders: Apple, Google, Huawei, Identiv, Infineon, NuCurrent, NXP Semiconductors, Sony, and STMicroelectronics.
Six Key Roadmap Priorities
The NFC Forum has identified six primary pillars that will guide technical development over the coming years:
- Faster Data Rates: The Forum is exploring methods to increase the standardized current data transfer rate between devices by up to eight times. This initiative aims to deliver a more responsive user experience by reducing data exchange times.
- Security Advancements: Upcoming work will focus on publishing the Forum’s first “NFC Controllers Security Profile.” Additionally, standards will be evolved to future-proof protocols against threats posed by Post-Quantum Computing and to strengthen defenses against relay-based attacks.
- Wireless Power Evolution: Work is commencing on the next generation of NFC Forum Wireless Charging Specifications. These updates aim to deliver higher charging power levels, define profiles specific to different device categories, and support devices utilizing multiple wireless charging receivers.
- Multi-Purpose Tap: The Forum is defining technical proposals to enable a “Multi-Purpose Tap.” This concept allows a single tap to trigger multiple actions, granting the NFC Reader the ability to specify and request the exact credentials required to complete a user interaction.
- Improved Reader Mode Interoperability: New initiatives will provide end-to-end interoperability testing. The objective is to ensure that new and updated applications function consistently across all NFC Forum Certified Devices, thereby improving the reliability of Reader Mode.
- Digital Keys: The roadmap includes the exploration of new digital key experiences to ensure NFC standards continue to support a diverse range of industry requirements regarding access and authentication.
Building on Previous Milestones
This announcement follows the NFC Forum’s previous Technology Roadmap released in 2023. That roadmap prioritized increasing operating volumes and advancing specifications to support Digital Product Passport requirements. According to the Forum, those ambitions were successfully delivered as part of NFC Release 15, which was launched in June 2025.
For over two decades, the NFC Forum has maintained open standards to support contactless technology. This new roadmap signals a continued effort to adapt those standards to emerging technological needs and security challenges.
The Roadmap will be discussed in more detail in the upcoming webinar on February 26.
Regarding this, Mike McCamon, Executive Director of NFC Forum, said:
NFC is a well-established and trusted foundational technology for countless devices and use cases across almost every market. To ensure that each of these deployments work in the seamless manner that customers expect from NFC, it is vital that the NFC Forum develops global standards that deliver true industry harmonization. Furthermore, to enable these standards to be adopted and applied at scale, it is equally important that all NFC stakeholders are aware of our plans and engage with NFC Forum in our development processes. This approach ensures future evolutions continue to align with both their current NFC use cases as well as their long-term ambitions.
For more than 20 years, NFC Forum has empowered organizations to create innovative contactless experiences backed by intuitive, reliable and consistent NFC open standards. The active engagement in the evolution of NFC technology from an ever-increasing number of industries is testament to the clear value it provides to users globally. As we accelerate across the arc of contactless towards inevitable ubiquity, we encourage discussion and welcome new contributions from across the ecosystem.