NFC Forum Announces NFC Release 15

NFC Forum, the global standards body for Near Field Communication (NFC) technology, has announced NFC Release 15, supporting the latest advancements in NFC Forum-certified technologies. NFC Release 15 will extend the range of certified compliant NFC contactless connections up to 2cm – 4x greater than the current range of 0.5cm, supporting faster, more reliable contactless interactions across a growing number of use cases such as wireless charging, kitchen appliances, wearables, and digital keys.

Led by its Board members, including representatives from Apple, Google, Huawei, Identiv, Infineon, NXP, Sony, and ST Microelectronics, NFC Forum empowers organizations to deliver seamless, secure contactless interactions to users around the globe, with conformance to the Forum’s specifications helping to ensure intuitive, reliable and consistent experiences.

NFC Release 15 will extend the range – also known as the operating volume – of NFC contactless interactions. This innovation means that connections will start sooner and require less precise device alignment, making NFC quicker, more reliable and easier to use than ever. Contactless connections will be more seamless, while retaining the critical need for user intent.

NFC Release 15 also marks the latest step in NFC Forum’s ongoing commitment to sustainability, as one of its other core focuses is support for the NFC Digital Product Passport Standard. The standard gives brand and product teams a flexible, data agnostic framework to allow a single NFC tag embedded in a product to store and transmit both standard and extended DPP data using common NFC Data Exchange Format (NDEF) records. NFC Release 15 will therefore help to ensure reliability, interoperability, and compatibility across all NFC devices used for the DPP, throughout a product’s entire lifecycle.

NFC Forum Associate, Principal, and Sponsor-level member companies can download the Technical Specifications included in NFC Release 15 today. Adopter-level members and the public can access and begin certifying compliance to NFC Release 15 from Fall 2025.