Small, Fast, Slower Than Qi Android 15 NFC Wireless Charging

Although NFC wireless charging is slower than Qi wireless charging, Android 15 may support it because fewer hardware is needed.

Qi wireless charging coil

When a smartphone has wireless battery charging capabilities, the Qi standard is usually used. Future Android 15-capable smartphones, however, might feature NFC Wireless Charging, which offers an alternative method of wireless charging. In any case, whether or not this method is less efficient than the Qi standard, Google appears to be working on finding a way to integrate this technology into models that are supported.

NFC wireless charging is perfect for small smartphones since it requires less hardware to function

For Qi-enabled devices with larger wireless charging coils, NFC Wireless Charging may overcome this problem using contactless payment technologies. Despite its May 2020 debut, NFC Wireless Charging (WLC) has not received significant use. Its slower charging speeds than Qi may explain this. Flexible charging antennae fit wireless earbuds, Bluetooth trackers, smart watches, and more. They can be 1 cm.

With the anticipated release of Android 15 later this year, NFC wireless charging

Android 15

Compatibility and an influx of WLC enabled accessories could be seen. The NFC APIs of the operating system now support WLC, according to Missal Rahman of Android Authority, who also claims that the Android 15 beta 1 has these features. According to the article, Google made an attempt to implement WLC support in late 2021 nearly a year and a half after the standard was initially published but eventually shelved all of her plans.

Google did not provide a reason for why it would revive its shelved project, but other goods like Bluetooth trackers which can be coupled with an Android phone could also benefit from this inclusion, in addition to small smartphones. These trackers and other accessories would be easy to maintain and charge with the integration of NFC wireless charging.

But integrating support into software is one thing; adding it as a feature to other items is quite another. Hopefully, additional information on this will be provided at the forthcoming I/O keynote.

• There may be a new wireless charging feature for Android 15 devices.
• Android is going to introduce NFC wireless charging functionality for your devices.
• Wireless charging usually conjures up the Qi standard. Qi wireless charging is embedded into many everyday smart devices.
• It has been around for a long.
• However, Qi wireless charging is either rare or nonexistent for a large number of smaller electronic gadgets.
• This is due to the possibility that smaller devices lack the internal space necessary to accommodate a coil large enough to receive enough power.
• The industry group that promotes Near Field Communication (NFC), which enables contactless payments, created the NFC Wireless Charging (WLC) protocol.

NFC wireless charging, introduced in May 2020, employs far smaller antennas than Qi. NFC wireless charging antennas are designed to fit into minuscule smart devices such as tracker tags, smartwatches, styluses, and earphones. They are packaged in a bending, flexible PCB and can be smaller than 1cm. To save even more space, the same antenna can also be utilized for conventional NFC data transfers. It would be logical to replace the NFC chip used in many smaller, low-power devices (such as tracker tags) that handles basic data transfers with a single antenna that handles charging and communication.

NFC wireless charging was introduced about four years ago, however it is still not widely used in many consumer goods. Major operating systems like Android may not support all platforms, which could be one cause for that. However, NFC Wireless Charging will soon be supported by the forthcoming Android 15 version, which may open the door for a large number of WLC-capable accessories to become available.

Android NFC Wireless Charging

We saw that Google made considerable changes to the NFC stack of the operating system when it published Android 15 beta 1 last week. For instance, a class named NFC Charging is now included in the system app that manages NFC-related events; it can read the charging information payloads received via NFC, initiate and stop NFC charging, and perform other functions. While the class mentions “version 1.0.0,” this most likely alludes to Android’s initial NFC Charging implementation, not WLC 1.0 (to put things in perspective, the NFC Forum revealed WLC 2.0 in late 2021; the only difference is that WLC 2.0 enables even lower antenna sizes).

WLC-related enhancements to the operating system’s NFC APIs which aren’t yet available in AOSP are also included in Android 15 beta 1. It’s notable that Google gave up on its initial attempt to add WLC support in late 2021, over a year and a half after the standard was originally made public. However, Google seems to have rekindled interest in adding WLC support to Android earlier this year, so why now?

Tracker tags may be one fascinating use for NFC wireless charging. In addition to having tiny batteries that don’t need much power to recharge (WLC can send up to 1W of electricity over a distance of 2cm) and already having NFC chips so they can transmit information about their owner to anyone discovers them, tracker tags are frequently too thin to contain a Qi wireless charging coil. While some tracker tags contain non-rechargeable batteries, several already tout up to a year of battery life, such as those that work with Android’s Find My Device network. It would be easier to charge and less expensive to maintain future tracker tags if they supported NFC wireless charging.

Stylus charging represents an additional possible use case. As NFC Wireless Charging is really built into the USI 2.0 specification, NFC charging is already possible for USI 2.0 styluses that are now available on the market. But in order to charge them, you’ll still need an NFC charging transmitter-equipped compatible device.

Hopefully, wireless charging will be more common in smaller gad gets like earbuds, styluses, smartwatches, and tracker tags once NFC Wireless Charging functionality is integrated into Android.