Do This to Easily Connect Guests to Your Wi-Fi
Every time someone new comes into your house, one of the first questions they ask is, “What is Wi-Fi?” Sure, you could tell them, but do you even know? Honestly, I do not know. If you’re like me, you’ve got a confusing Wi-Fi name/password combination at the bottom of your router that needs to be accessed every time it’s needed. Luckily, there’s an easy way to improve your Wi-Fi sharing game without having to change passwords or remember anything.
Of course, the situation is not as bad as it used to be. If you and your guest have an iPhone, you can share your online credentials with a single tap. However, to begin this process, your friend must first select your Wi-Fi network from a list, and they must be a contact on your phone, adding extra steps to what could be a seamless setup.
As for Android, you can share your Wi-Fi password using the built-in QR code. Again, more comfortable than in the past, but there is room for improvement. You don’t need to intervene at all when guests want to connect to Wi-Fi.
How NFC can improve Wi-Fi password sharing
In 2022, the solution to share Wi-Fi passwords as quickly as possible comes down to NFC. You probably use NFC (Near Field Communication) quite often, as it is the main mobile payment technology (like Apple Pay, Android Pay or Samsung Pay). When you point your smartphone at a POS, the NFC chip in your phone communicates with the NFC chip in the POS and proceeds through the payment process from there.
The same seamless technology can be yours for a variety of use cases. But in this particular case, we’ll focus on using it for Wi-Fi sharing. Just like you scan an NFC tag to pay for your morning coffee, you can scan an NFC tag to instantly connect to your current Wi-Fi network. So you can place an NFC tag in a convenient location, such as at the entrance, and direct guests to wave their phones over it to connect to Wi-Fi, no password required.
While it may seem like something reserved for a business or corporate environment, NFC itself is a very accessible and accessible technology. You can purchase NFC tags in packs of 10, 30, 50, or even 100 for as little as 28 cents per tag.
The only problem is this: while you can set up NFC tags from any smartphone, at the moment only Android devices can connect to Wi-Fi using an NFC tag. While the iPhone obviously has NFC, iOS won’t let you directly connect to Wi-Fi from one of them. It’s also a bummer since this hack works so well on Android, but there’s a workaround that makes things easier for everyone.
How to share your Wi-Fi password using NFC
Setting up tags is pretty easy. As TikTok creator b_turn50 demonstrated , you just need the free NFC Tools app for iPhone or Android . Open the app, click Compose, then click Add Entry. Scroll down and click Wi-Fi Network. Here, click Change under Authentication and select your Wi-Fi encryption type (most connections are WPA/WPA2-Personal). Now enter the name of your Wi-Fi network in the “SSID” section and the password in the “Password” section, then click “OK”.
Now tap Write, scan a blank NFC tag when prompted, and the app will write your data to the tag. From here, the tag is configured to be shared across any Android device. All your guest has to do is wave their Android over the tag and they will be prompted to connect to Wi-Fi without having to enter a password.
However, this does not include your iPhone friends, of which you probably have many. While you can leave your Wi-Fi credentials in a note next to the NFC tag, there are more creative and technical ways to do so.
Add a digital note to an NFC tag
If you have an Apple device handy, try adding a digital note to your NFC tag that iPhone friends can access when they scan the tag. This way, they will still see the credentials, even if it’s less convenient than on Android.
First, open the Apple Notes app and then write down your Wi-Fi credentials here. You can name it something like “My Wi-Fi” by entering your Wi-Fi name and password below. Now tap the Share icon, tap Collaborate, then under Who Can Access, select Anyone with the link. Go back, then select Copy Link.
Now back to configuring NFC tools. Select Add Entry, tap URL/URI, then paste the iCloud link into the text box. Select “OK”, then make sure “URL/URI” is under “Wi-Fi network” in the list of actions so that it only shows up if the first action fails. Now record this process on your NFC tag.
This combination should have the following results: your Android friends will scan the tag and see the ability to connect to Wi-Fi, while your iPhone friends will be blocked from doing so, offering to launch the note link instead.
Create a QR code with your Wi-Fi credentials
While iPhones cannot directly connect to Wi-Fi networks via NFC, they can do so using a QR code. So you can generate a QR code with your Wi-Fi credentials, print it out, and place it over the NFC tag. So iPhone users could scan the code and Android users could choose to scan the code or save time and just hold their phone up to the code/tag and instantly connect to Wi-Fi.
Any QR code generator will do, but whether you choose a website or app, choose one that has a good reputation. For example, you can try the Bitly QR Code Generator . Here, the setup is similar to the NFC tag: enter the network name, password, and encryption type, then click “Download” to save the code to your computer. Now print it out and place it wherever you want.