How to Use Android Phone to Emulate RFID Tag: Full Tutorial and Application Guide
Introduction: Why Emulate RFID Tags with Android Phones? In IoT development, access control testing, and smart hardware prototyping, using physical RFID cards often involves cost, logistics, and management overhead. Android phones with built-in NFC modules can emulate standard RFID cards—such as MIFARE Classic, NTAG, or ISO 14443 types—by leveraging Host-based Card Emulation (HCE), enabling rapid prototyping and system testing without requiring physical cards. HCE Simulation Principle: How Can a Phone Act Like an RFID Tag? Host-based Card Emulation (HCE), introduced in Android 4.4, enables smartphones to emulate smartcards and communicate with RFID readers via the APDU protocol: The phone generates a 13.56 MHz RF signal; Registers AID (Application ID) to handle reader requests; Developers write logic to handle incoming APDU commands and return data. This means software-based simulation can replace physical RFID cards entirely. Required Hardware and Software To successfully emulate RFID...