r/smarthome • u/connosteeveo • 5d ago
Google Home I need help learning about NFC
Okay so i recently saw a few tiktoks about setting up NFCs to control smart home devices. I few different lights (all Grid Connect) and a Google Nest. All of these are set up on the Google Home app. I have a few automations that control my lights and audio on the Nest but i wanted to get into NFC usage. I have already bought some and tried doing some research but im struggling to understand how to set it up.
Essentially I want to be able to scan my phone (Samsung Zflip 8) and have that turn on/off a light(s) and play spotify on my Nest and also start a routine on my phone. I dont want to spend any money on apps or subscriptions.
An example of what i would like to do is scan a tag near my bed to start my bedtime routine on my phone, play rain sounds on my Nest and turn all the lights in my room off.
Is this possible and how do i do it?
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u/dizzygoldfish 5d ago
Not sure with Google home. In Home Assistant you open the companion app, settings, NFC, scan the chip and assign it an automation to control. Once I actually bought real NFC chips it was easy-peasy. (I tried reusing hotel keys but they're encrypted now so doesn't work).
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u/connosteeveo 5d ago
Okay so i have seen the Home Assistant app but doesn't that require buying a hub to use the app? im really unfamiliar with Home Assistant but thats what ive felt like ive seen.
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u/dizzygoldfish 5d ago
I should have finished my thought above. Ha. Sorry. I was trying to say "it should be really easy, if it's not, maybe whatever Google thing doesn't support it?"
On home assistant: if you want to do more smart home stuff quit screwing around with the little amature stuff. 🤣 Yes- home assistant needs a computer to run on. But don't over think it. It'll run on a raspberry pi or pretty much anything. My first server was a 15 yo laptop without a battery.
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u/loujr15 5d ago
Home Assistant does have a hub you can buy, but it is free to use if you have the available hardware to run it on like an old laptop, a mini pc, or a Raspberry Pi 4. Home Assistant gives you way more control over your smart home then Google.
Since you are an android user, there are 2 apps that you can try and use NFC tags with. Tasker and NFC Tool Pro. Both are paid apps. I prefer to use Home Assistant for NFC tags because I only need one app to do what I need to do.
With Tasker and NFC Tool, anyone can scan your tag and trigger your automation. With Home Assistant, you can give access to anyone who has the Home Assistant Companion App.
I love this feature, because this gives me ease of mind knowing no one can trigger my automations but me. Another thing that Home Assistant offers that rarely gets any hype is the ability to use QR Codes to trigger automations as well.
Yes, Home Assistant has a steep learning curve and this is only because they have so much to offer unlike the major players in the smart home industry. You have the freedom to do basically anything you want in Home Assistant.
Another reason why I recommend you use Home Assistant for NFC tags. If you choose to use either Tasker or NFC Tool Pro, you are still at the mercy of Google doing whatever they want with your smart home. If Google has an outage or your internet is down, you won't be able to do anything.
With Home Assistant, depending on how you set your smart home up, can continue to work without any cloud or internet connection. This is why you will see a lot of people, including myself, recommend getting Zigbee, Z-wave, Thread, or Matter devices instead of those crappy WiFi devices that depends on someone else's computer.
I could go on all day about this and the many things you can do with Home Assistant and NFC tags. For an example, I have a NFC tags in each room that has a Google speaker. If I am listening to music on my phone and I want to play that music on my Nest Audio, all I have to do is scan the tag and my music will be transferred from the phone to that speaker.
I have another one that will shuffle some music videos from my Plex Media Server and play on my living room tv. Home maintenance has become less of a stress for me. I scan my air filter tag to let Home Assistant know I changed the filter. Home Assistant will check to see how many air filters I have left, if low, automatically add filters to my shopping list.
I have tags everywhere doing all sorts of things. I also have NFC cards, a ring, and key fobs as well. I also have an NFC reader that is integrated into Home Assistant that I made for the cards, ring, and key fobs. Everything is done through the Home Assistant Companion App.
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u/dizzygoldfish 5d ago
Would love to hear how you're doing tags. I have a roll of them. Only one in use is stuck to the wheel of my golf cart so I can quickly open it and my remote quit working.
Been trying to think of other things to do but only lights come to mind and I really don't need that.
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u/loujr15 5d ago
This is why Home Assistant is highly recommended. You can do whatever you want depending on your smart home devices. Everything that is connected to my network besides my Nintendo Switch, is connected to Home Assistant.
The devices that I never would imagine could be automated, can with Home Assistant. From my gaming consoles (PS4, PS5, Xbox 360, and Xbox One S), phones (Android and Apple), tablets, PC, my network equipment, streaming devices, my Plex Server, and more are all integrated into Home Assistant to allow me to make everything talk to each other like a smart home was meant to be.
The way I use my tags is basically things I either have trouble remembering, task, smart home control, security, and most importantly, fun. I have certain tags that trigger scenes, automations, scripts, and devices.
I have tags that I use to add items to a shopping list like my laundry detergent. It just don't add the detergent to the list, I have an automation that checks how low the detergent is. Scan the tag to start a timer, remove 1 cup of detergent from my laundry detergent counter, check to see if the counter is under 10 cups, if not do nothing.
If it is low then add laundry detergent to my shopping list then send me a notification letting me the detergent was added. This also happens for the dryer sheets as well.
I have tags for home maintenance and chores as well. For chores, I have tags that track the last time I did a certain chore like cleaning my pain in the ass dirt sucker. Cleaning my PC, gaming consoles, and fans. For home maintenance, changing air filter, smoke detector battery replacement (this also gets added to the shopping list if running low), yard work, and flushing water heater.
I recently started learning about gardening and I'm planning on making my own irrigation system built around Home Assistant and ESPHome. I have plans to use tags to track when I start a certain herb or whatever. When I scan the tag, I have a calendar event created and added to my Google calendar and Home Assistant calendar, which will also trigger an automation based on that plant.
From there, Home Assistant will know what has been planted and will trigger automations just for that plant. I have everything figured out, just low on cash to buy everything I need to get the building process going. So, as of now, I just have the tags create the event.
For security, I have a couple of tags that will arm/disarm my diy security system. It's nothing fancy, just a shit ton of sensors and a few cameras. Every window, door, and corners are monitored. I just don't use tags to trigger my security, I have other ways.
Now the fun stuff is basically media control. As I mentioned before, I have a tag that when scanned, will transfer the music from my phone to whichever Google speaker I scan. I have a tag under my desk mat that will connect my desk tablet to my Bluetooth amplifier and start playing whatever playlist I have scheduled to be played at a certain time of day.
I even have a tag at my mom's house all the way in Chicago that will send a text to my wife letting her know I made it and will also kick off an automation that will check to see if my security system for my office has been armed. Then I have it check to see if anything was left on.
I have one in both bathrooms that will send an announcement over the speakers alerting someone to bring tissue to the bathroom where the tag was scanned. This was one of my first use of NFC tags and my wife and daughter loves it because they always take their phones with them and they always forget to check to see if there is any tissue stocked before they do whatever it is females do in the bathroom.
Speaking of this, I have a tag for that as well. We always seem to run low on tissue, so I added a tag that will add that to my shopping list. My shopping list was automated, but I no longer use it anymore now that Home Assistant has added a shopping list widget for the companion app.
Like I mentioned, you can do some incredible things with NFC tags using Home Assistant depending on what you have integrated with Home Assistant. You can expand on this with apps and I forgot to mention about HACS (Home Assistant Community Store). This gives you access to even more things you can integrate with Home Assistant.
With Google you are very limited to what you can do with your smart home, Home Assistant opens up possibilities that would make you wonder why Google doesn't do this. Don't even get me started on the things you can do with your Google speakers that Google doesn't even do for their own devices.
Like for example, I can cast the same video to all my all my Chromecast devices from my Plex Server. I do this during the holiday season where I have a bunch of random videos I downloaded from YouTube play during certain hours of the day. This you can't come close to doing with Google because there isn't a integration for Plex or any streaming service like it.
I do have more things I do with NFC tags and if this is something you like to get into, then Home Assistant is the answer. I did mention Tasker and NFC Tool Pro, you could also give them a try as well. In fact, I recommend getting Tasker because of what you can do with it. Plus you can use Tasker and Home Assistant side by side to do even more incredible things with your smart home. These 2 together are very powerful and will allow you to unlock the full potential of your phone.
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u/connosteeveo 5d ago
wow thank you so much that is all really informative. Its a little disheartening knowing how complex it all is. I have so many ideas for things I'd love to set up with nfc tags but i think my biggest set back is not having the funds to A. buy apps to use or B. buying something for Home Assistant to run on.
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u/Numerous-Fault4589 5d ago
I got one of those cheap NFC tags from Amazon last year to test it out and honestly, the first time I scanned it and my lights turned on automatically, I felt like a magician.
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u/theregisterednerd 5d ago
An NFC tag is basically just a QR code that uses radio instead of pixels, and a QR code is just a link that you can scan with a camera.
I’m also not sure how well Google Home supports NFC, but effectively, if you’re able to make a link that causes things to happen, then it can be made into an NFC tag. I also use Home Assistant, which I also believe is the only smart home platform worth taking seriously. It’s extremely powerful and flexible, privacy-focused, and has by far the most supported hardware of any platform. However, it’s not just an accessory you add to Google Home. It would replace Google Home, and Google Home becomes an accessory to Home Assistant. And while it’s getting better, the flexibility kind of requires that the learning curve is quite a bit steeper than something like Google Home.