Programming an NFC chip with NFC Tools

What you need

• A phone with NFC (any iPhone 7+ or any Android from the last decade)
• The NFC Tools app, free, from the App Store or Play Store
• One or more blank NTAG215 chips (see our chip-buying guide if you don't have any yet)
• Your Dyve card's URL (you'll find it in your dashboard at /app/cards)

Step 1: Install NFC Tools

App Store: search "NFC Tools" (the developer is wakdev, dark blue icon with a white NFC waves symbol). Free version is all you need. There's a paid "Pro" version for $5 that adds batch-writing and a few power features. For 1-5 cards, free is fine.

Play Store version is from the same developer, same UI, same workflow.

Step 2: Copy your Dyve URL

Sign in at cards.dyvetech.com/app/cards. Tap the card you want to program. The chip URL is displayed at the bottom of the sheet (looks like https://cards.dyvetech.com/c/abc123). Tap the Copy button to copy it to your clipboard.

(If you're doing this on your phone, the in-app sheet has an explicit "Phone setup" section with the same Copy button.)

Step 3: Open NFC Tools, pick Write

In NFC Tools, tap the Write tab at the bottom. Tap Add a record. From the long list of record types, pick URL / URI.

Paste your Dyve URL into the URL field. Hit OK.

You should see your URL listed under "Records to write to the tag." If you accidentally added more than one record, swipe to delete the extras.

Step 4: Write to the chip

Tap the big Write / X bytes button at the bottom. NFC Tools shows a "Approach an NFC tag" prompt.

Hold your phone close to the chip. On iPhone, hold the top edge of the phone over the chip (the NFC antenna sits at the top). On Android, the antenna is usually in the middle of the back; check your phone's manual if you're not sure.

You'll see a confirmation ("Write complete") and feel a little haptic. That's it.

Step 5: Test

Close NFC Tools. Wake your phone's home screen. Tap the chip again. Your Dyve profile should pop up in your browser within a second.

If it doesn't:

• On iPhone, you may need to swipe down on the notification that says "Open cards.dyvetech.com." iOS 14+ shows the URL automatically; older versions ask first.
• On Android, taps should open the browser instantly. If nothing happens, NFC may be turned off. Check Settings → Connected devices → NFC.
• If you see "NFC tag detected" but no URL prompt, the chip is probably a dud (see the dud-detection tips in our chip-buying guide). Try the next chip.

Optional: lock the chip

By default, anyone with NFC Tools could overwrite your chip. To prevent that, you can lock the chip after writing.

In NFC Tools, tap the Other tab → Lock tag. Confirm. Once locked, that chip is permanently read-only. The URL on it can never be changed (but the profile that URL resolves to on our side is still fully editable, which is the whole point).

For most personal use, locking is unnecessary. For cards you hand out to clients or display at events, locking is worth the 5 extra seconds.

Bulk writing

If you're writing 20+ chips (a workspace pool, conference handouts), NFC Tools Pro's "Multiple tags" mode lets you write the same record to chip after chip without re-tapping the button between each. Worth the $5 if you're doing a batch.

We're also planning a browser-based bulk-write wizard that runs on Android with Web NFC, so you can program from your laptop without an app at all. Watch the blog for that.