Welcome to the VTAP Knowledge Base

Find out how to adjust pass and card/tag output formats to add a VTAP reader to an access control system in Using a VTAP reader for access control

How to use Apple or Google passes produced under several different Merchant IDs or Collector IDs is explained in One VTAP reading multiple passes?

Key fixtures or features changed in each firmware version can be found in VTAP release notes

An NFC pass is an electronic record of a loyalty card, ticket or ID, which can be presented securely by your smart phone over a short distance, using its NFC (Near Field Communication) signal. In the same way that Apple Pay and Google Pay replaces bank cards when making contactless payments, Apple & Google Wallets can also store NFC digital passes to replace physical loyalty cards, event tickets, club membership numbers, QR-codes and other IDs used for non-banking applications.

Apple VAS (Value Added Services) are concerned with storing and using digital passes in your Apple Wallet. In the same way that Apple Pay replaces bank cards when making contactless payments, Apple Wallet will store NFC enabled digital passes, which replace physical loyalty cards, event tickets, club membership numbers, QR-codes and other IDs used for non-banking applications. NFC passes in Apple Wallet can only be used with readers that support the Apple Pay VAS (Value Added Services) protocol.

Google Smart Tap technology is concerned with storing and using digital passes in your Google Wallet. In the same way that Google Pay replaces bank cards when making contactless payments, Google Wallet will store NFC enabled digital passes, which replace physical loyalty cards, event tickets, club membership numbers, QR-codes and other IDs used for non-banking applications.

NFC passes in Google Wallet can only be used with readers that support the Google Smart Tap protocol.

The security for an NFC pass has not been designed for payment applications, so it is different to that required by the banks of payment cards. An NFC pass can, however, be used to store a loyalty card, offer, voucher, ticket, gift card or token. This might include a meal ticket, promotional gift or free drink, which has no specific value.

An NFC pass could be used to trigger an adjustment to a payment requested by your payment system, such as applying a member discount, but if there is any residual payment that would have to be made using a bank card.

Apple will always carefully consider any new proposed application of NFC passes.

If your VTAP reader is set up to read both NFC passes and cards/tags you might notice that whenever an Android phone is locked, or has its display switched off, it will interact with a card reader as if it is an NFC Type4 tag, with either a fixed or random UID, such as '08E22AC1'.

The VTAP will always first attempt to read a mobile pass, but will fail to find a VAS or SmartTap device, because the Android device cannot respond in this state. If reading NFC Type4 cards/tags is enabled on the VTAP, it will then move on to try reading this type of card and when it appears to find one will report that UID.

For this reason, we recommend that you only enable reading NFC Type4 cards/tags when they are a necessary part of your application. If you do need to read both NFC passes and NFC Type4 cards/tags, you should make use of the IgnoreRandomUID setting, available from VTAP firmware version v1.1.12.4.