RIM has released five NFC-enabled phones, and now the company's working on apps that take advantage of the new technology. BlackBerry Tag, which RIM announced will be part of the next BlackBerry 7 OS update, uses NFC to let BlackBerry owners touch their phones together to transfer contacts, documents, and URLs, or automatically become BBM contacts. Since both parties need an NFC-enabled handset (the Bold 9900 / 9930 or Curve 9350 / 9360 / 9370) to use Tag, you'll probably have trouble finding someone to Tag with until NFC phones become more widespread. It's also BlackBerry-only, unlike apps like Bump that work across platforms and only require that both phones have an internet connection — but RIM says developers will eventually be able to use the Tag API to bring the tap-to-share NFC functionality to third-party apps.
BlackBerry Tag lets users tap phones to exchange documents, contacts, more
is editor-at-large and Vergecast co-host with over a decade of experience covering consumer tech. Previously, at Protocol, The Wall Street Journal, and Wired.
Follow topics and authors from this story to see more like this in your personalized homepage feed and to receive email updates.
