What scanning is for
Scanning does not open the visitor's page. It opens the Marker's control panel: what this Marker is, what it currently opens, and every action you might want to take on it. It exists because the useful moment for changing a Marker is when you are looking at it on the wall, not when you are back at a desk trying to remember which one you meant.
Scan one
- 1
Press Scan in the app header.
It sits between Create and the cart, and its label reads Tap a NearField Marker.
- 2
Hold the top of the phone against the NearField mark on the Marker.
The antenna on an iPhone is at the top of the back, so the natural grip is usually an inch too low. iOS shows its own scanning sheet while it reads.
- 3
Wait a moment after the read.
The app deliberately waits about a second after a successful read so that iOS has finished dismissing its own sheet before ours appears. If it feels slightly slow, that is why.
- 4
Work in the sheet that opens.
It is a bottom sheet on a phone and a dialog on an iPad.
What the sheet shows
- A live Marker
- The Experience it currently opens, and four things you can do: edit what visitors see, point it somewhere else, see how it is doing, or disconnect it.
- A Marker with no Experience
- What should this Marker do?, with three routes: something you have already built, a link you already have, or a single-purpose Action. Whatever you pick is live before you put the phone back in your pocket.
- A Marker that has not been activated
- A six-slot PIN field that submits itself on the sixth character. This is the fastest way to register a box of Markers.
- A Marker on somebody else's account
- It tells you so, and nothing else. If it shipped to you and has not appeared on your account, email hello@getnearfield.com and we will move it across.
- Something that is not a Marker
- That isn't a NearField Marker: the tag read fine but carries no NearField address. Usually this means the phone found a different tag nearby.
Linking a Marker while you build
The builder's publish flow has the same reader behind a button that reads Tap a Marker to link it. It only ever returns Markers already assigned to your account, so you cannot claim someone else's Marker by holding a phone to it. The celebration after a successful link is delayed by a second or so for the same reason as above: iOS covers our messages with its own sheet.
Example
Harbour Point Aquarium, opening morning
Harbour Point installs sixteen Markers along the tank run the night before a new show opens, all unregistered. On the morning, one member of staff walks the run with an iPad: scan, six-character PIN, pick the tank's Experience, next Marker. No list, no typing of Marker IDs, and the numbers start counting from the first visitor through the door.
Why does the reader time out?
iOS stops an idle NFC session on its own, and the app carries a sixty-second backstop for the same reason. Press Scan again.
Can I scan a Marker that belongs to a colleague's account?
You can read it, and the app will tell you it is not on your account. You cannot see or change anything about it.
Does scanning count as a visit in my stats?
No. Scanning in the app opens a control sheet, not the visitor page, so it never inflates your numbers. Tapping a Marker with the phone's ordinary browser does count.
Is there an Android app?
Not today. Everything except NFC scanning works in a mobile browser on Android, including registering a Marker by typing its PIN.