We get asked this constantly, usually by someone who has just downloaded an NFC app and had it fail on their condo fob. The app is not broken. Here is what is going on.
Your phone has one NFC radio, tuned to one band
Both iPhone and Android implement NFC at 13.56 MHz. That is the entire NFC standard — contactless payments, transit cards, MIFARE, DESFire, iCLASS and SEOS all live there.
125 kHz is a different band entirely, and no phone has an antenna for it. This is not a limitation Apple or Google could patch away; it would require different hardware. HID Prox, Kantech ioProx, AWID, Keri, Indala and EM4100 fobs — the majority of condo credentials in Toronto — are all 125 kHz. Your phone will never see them.
What a phone can read
For 13.56 MHz credentials, a phone can pick up the tag's identifier and enough protocol detail to determine the family: MIFARE Classic, Ultralight, DESFire, or an ISO 15693 card like legacy iCLASS. That is genuinely useful for identification and pricing.
It is not enough to make a copy. Reading a credential's identity and cloning it onto a working blank are different problems, and the second one needs a proper reader-writer.
Browser NFC is more limited still
Web pages on Android can use the Web NFC API, but it only reads NDEF messages — the format used by tags that store a URL or text. Access control fobs do not use NDEF, so a website cannot identify your fob even on Android. On iPhone, Safari has no NFC access at all.
Real tag identification requires a native app using Core NFC on iOS or NfcAdapter on Android. That is what we are building.
What to do today
Use our Fob Checker. Send a couple of clear photos of both sides of your fob along with any printed numbers, and we will tell you the technology, whether it is copyable, and the exact price — before you travel to us. It works for every credential type, including the 125 kHz fobs no phone will ever read.
Or just bring it in. The reading is free either way.