MakeUseOf Details Five Household Uses for NFC Tags in Smart Homes

A hands-on smart home feature published by MakeUseOf recommends placing NFC tags around the house to trigger phone actions — such as adjusting settings or setting reminders — so a person does not have to remember to do it manually, according to the outlet. The piece lists five practical spots in a home where the small, inexpensive stickers can stand in for memory, framing the tags as a low-cost complement to a broader smart home setup.

What Are NFC Tags And Why Use Them At Home?

NFC, or near-field communication, tags are thin, programmable stickers that a smartphone can read when held close to them, prompting the phone to run a preset action. MakeUseOf's writer describes using the tags as physical shortcuts: touch the phone to a tag by the door, on a nightstand, or near an appliance, and the phone carries out a task automatically rather than requiring the person to open an app or recall a setting, according to the outlet's account.

The appeal, per the piece, is that the tags are cheap and require no subscription or hub of their own — they simply hold a small instruction that a phone executes on contact. That makes them attractive to hobbyists layering small automations onto an existing smart home rather than replacing it.

What Household Tasks Does The Piece Say NFC Tags Can Handle?

MakeUseOf's writer describes tagging five specific points in daily routines where a phone tap replaces a step that is easy to forget, framing each as a fix for a recurring lapse in memory rather than a major overhaul of the home's technology, according to the article. The underlying theme across the examples is consistency: a tag placed in the same spot every day removes the need to remember whether a setting was changed or a task was completed, the outlet reports.

The full list of five uses, along with the writer's reasoning for each, is detailed in the original MakeUseOf article.

"So I never have to remember them again" — the framing MakeUseOf's writer uses to describe the appeal of NFC tags in the headline of the piece.

How Does NFC Tagging Fit With Standards Like Matter?

NFC tags operate independently of the Matter smart home standard, which governs how devices from different manufacturers communicate with a central hub or app. A recent update to Matter was reported to simplify how smart home devices connect to one another, according to Smart Home Central's coverage of the update. NFC tags do not require Matter certification or a compatible hub; they rely on a phone's built-in NFC reader to fire an action, which can include controlling Matter-connected devices if the phone is set up to do so.

That distinction matters for households weighing where to start. A Matter-certified hub standardizes communication between devices such as lights, locks, and thermostats, while an NFC tag is a single-purpose trigger a person places wherever a reminder or setting change is needed — the two can work together but are not the same layer of a smart home setup.

Does Naming Devices And Scenes Matter For NFC Triggers?

Because an NFC tag typically triggers a scene or shortcut rather than a single device, how that scene is labeled inside a phone's automation app affects how easy it is to set up and troubleshoot. Smart Home Central has previously reported on the value of naming smart home devices and scenes so they are easy to identify at a glance, a practice that applies directly to anyone building NFC-triggered routines, according to that earlier report. A tag programmed to fire a poorly labeled scene can be harder to debug later if the automation stops working as expected.

Where Can Readers Find The Full List?

The complete breakdown of all five NFC tag placements, including the writer's specific reasoning for each spot chosen, appears in the original MakeUseOf article, linked via Google News. The outlet frames the approach as accessible to anyone with a smartphone capable of reading NFC tags, without requiring a dedicated smart home hub to get started.