6 min read · Updated October 18, 2026
NFC Google review cards: how do they work?
The customer holds their phone near the card and your Google “Write a review” page opens. No app, no link to type. Here’s what actually happens inside the card, and how to get the most out of it.
NFC in two sentences
NFC stands for Near Field Communication: a wireless link that only works within a few centimetres. It’s the same technology as tap-to-pay — your customers already make this gesture several times a week.
The card holds a tiny chip and an antenna, with no battery: the phone powers it for the moment it’s read. It doesn’t wear out with use.
What’s inside the chip
A web address, nothing more. When the phone reads the chip, it opens that address in the browser, as if you had tapped a link.
There are two ways to do it:
- Write the Google review link straight into the chip. Simple, but frozen: if the link changes, or you want to send people to your menu one day, the card has to be reprogrammed. And you never know how often it’s used.
- Write an intermediate address that redirects (that’s what Tapora does). The destination can be changed remotely at any time, and every tap is counted: you see how many customers opened the page, on which day and at what time.
Which phones are compatible?
- iPhone: since the iPhone XS and XR (2018), NFC cards are read with no app, with the phone unlocked. The top of the phone reads the card.
- Android: the vast majority of phones have NFC, often already on because it’s used for tap-to-pay. The reader is usually in the middle of the back. If nothing happens, NFC may be turned off in the settings.
The phone needs internet to open the Google page; the card itself needs nothing.
Where to place the card
- Where hands already are: next to the payment terminal, on the counter, on the table, with the bill.
- At eye or hand level, never hidden behind the register.
- Not on a metal surface: metal interferes with NFC reading. On a metal counter, use a stand or holder.
- One card for each spot where customers wait: register, tables, waiting room, reception.
Tip: show the gesture the first time — “hold the top of your phone here”. A two-second demo and customers stop fumbling.
What the card doesn’t do
It doesn’t replace asking. A card left alone on a counter gets used far less than one the team mentions in a sentence. It doesn’t collect data about the person either: a Tapora card only keeps the time of the tap and the type of phone, in line with Québec’s Law 25.