Apple to open NFC on iPhone for UK Government App

Posted on by

It has long been a limitation of iPhones, but available on Android devices, the ability to use the NFC reader within applications. The NFC reader has many applications, in particular, it can be used to read the information on a EU Biometric Passport. The chip contained on the passport document contains a digital copy of the passport information and a high resolution copy of the passport photo. As well as reducing errors from extracting information from the document using OCR the high resolution photo is suitable for facial recognition. 


The Guardian reports that Apple has agreed to permit access for a UK Government app, called “EU Exit: ID Document Check“, to allow it to work by the end of 2019. The home secretary has struck a deal with Apple, after the Home Office received a lot of negative feedback about it’s production of an App, which only worked on Android. The ID element of the EU Exit: ID Document Check app does not work at all on an iPhone currently!

The issue of not being able to access the NFC reader on iPhone devices is a common problem across providers of identity document validation technologies. Commercial providers of the service have found a way for the functionality to operate on an iPhone, however would greatly benefit from the ability to also access the NFC reader for the same purpose. 

The EU Exit: ID Document Check app allows a user to:

  • check that your identity document is genuine
  • verify that it belongs to you

The app works by the user taking a photo of their identity document, then placing their device against the passport to read the chip. The user then takes a selfie, which is compared using facial recognition technology to establish that the user of the app is the same person as that on the high resolution image from the chip.