Android NFC Pairing Issue

[sarem-shal]

Hello,

I am trying to test using NFC pairing with the nRF52840, but I am having trouble connecting to the device with the built-in android NFC Pairing prompt without the NRF Connect App. I am using the ble_nfc_pairing_reference example and a Google Pixel 3a phone as well.

When I try to connect to the board with the phone, the board will give the following log which appears to be saying the NFC pairing was successful.

<info> app_timer: RTC: initialized.
<info> app: NFC Connection Handover BLE peripheral device example started.
<info> BLE_M: Fast advertising.
<info> BLE_M: Connected.
<info> nrf_ble_lesc: Calling sd_ble_gap_lesc_dhkey_reply on conn_handle: 0
<info> BLE_M: BLE_GAP_EVT_CONN_SEC_UPDATE
<info> BLE_M: Security mode: 4
<info> peer_manager_handler: Connection secured: role: Peripheral, conn_handle: 0, procedure: Bonding
<info> BLE_M: BLE_GAP_EVT_AUTH_STATUS
<info> BLE_M: Authorization succeeded!
<info> peer_manager_handler: Peer data updated in flash: peer_id: 0, data_id: Bonding data, action: Update
<info> peer_manager_handler: Peer data updated in flash: peer_id: 0, data_id: Peer rank, action: Update
<info> peer_manager_handler: Peer data updated in flash: peer_id: 0, data_id: Central address resolution, action: Update

However, the phone will not actually connect to the device and claim it could not connect. The phone does seem to successfully bond though. (Whenever I try this, I will be mindful of deleting the previous bond information as well)

Now, if I try pairing the board with the NRF connect app, it will work fine. I will bond and connect to the board through the app entirely.

Is there any way I could get the phone to pair successfully with only the Android built-in NFC pairing?

[Simonr]

Hi

Have you tried your application with any other phones than the Google Pixel 3? We had an issue some time ago which turned out to be specific to the Google Pixel 3 and 3XL, and apparently there are some issues with the NFC support on that particular phone, as the NFC application that time was able to connect with any other phones supporting NFC but the Google Pixel 3 and 3XL. Even Google Pixel 1 and 2 were able to, so there are some issues with the NFC on that particular phone I'm afraid. Here's that case for reference.

I suggest you test with another phone before looking at your application.

Best regards,

Simon

[sarem-shal]

Hi, so I tried connecting to the board with a Samsung Galaxy 7 and I saw the same behavior where the built-in NFC was able to bond but could not connect. But, it was able to connect fine through the NRF app. Could this just be a limitation of the application or board where it can not do a BLE connection without an app (such as the NRF connect app)? Or could it be that the phone itself does not recognize the service without the app?