There Wireless charging has become trendy in recent years with more and more devices supporting Qi technology. But other standards exist, such as charging via NFC which could be integrated into Android 15.
If you’ve taken a little interest in wireless charging in recent years, there’s a good chance you’ve seen two little letters pass by many times: Qi. Having become the almost standard wireless charging protocol in the mobile industry, this standard is not alone. Since 2020, the industry has agreed to promote a second technology: wireless charging via NFC.
A niche standard
The NFC protocol is normally used to transmit small amounts of information via near-field operation, hence its full name “Near Field Communication“. It is this technology that allows you to use your smartphone as a payment terminal or as a Navigo card on Paris metro terminals. But NFC can also be used as charging coils for certain accessories.
Thanks to the “NFC Wireless Charging” standard established in 2020, it is in fact possible to use the NFC chips in our phones to send up to 3 watts of current 2 cm away. This energy efficiency is very far from what the Qi standard can achieve (which can reach 20 watts), but charging by NFC does not aim for exactly the same uses in reality.
An interesting use
When it was made official, wireless charging via NFC was presented as an ideal solution for recharging IoT gadgets, connected watches or wireless headphones. Indeed, the antennas necessary for receiving an electric current are much more compact than their Qi equivalents and can therefore be integrated into smaller devices. Despite its limited effectiveness, recharging by NFC can therefore be relevant in certain cases. And as Android Authority discovered, the first beta versions of Android 15 include code supporting this famous standard.
Why is Google embarking on this adventure 4 years after the formalization of the protocol, you may ask? Well, it’s a safe bet that this has to do with the arrival of Airtag-style tags for Android. These tiny products are ideal candidates for NFC charging, being very compact and not requiring a lot of power.
We will have to wait a little to see if support for the standard will indeed arrive in Android 15 and if compatible accessories will complete the ecosystem, but support for this new protocol adds another string to the bow. Android.
Source : Android Authority
0