Apple will likely expand NFC features beyond Apple Pay with iOS 11

Apple this week took the wraps off iOS 11 and detailed a healthy chunk of new features set to arrive for iPad and iPhone owners some time this fall. One aspect of the new mobile OS that wasn’t talked about during the keynote was a new “Core NFC” framework that could expand near-field communication features for Apple devices beyond just its mobile payments support. The change in how iOS makes use of NFC is detailed in a documentation webpage for the beta version of iOS 11, and it was reported by Engadget earlier today. (Apple did announce on stage yesterday that its upcoming watchOS 4 release would let the Apple Watch communicate with supported gym equipment using NFC.)