NFC wristband vs business card.

A paper card is the easiest thing to hand over, and it needs no phone. A QR code works with nearly every smartphone camera and can be scanned from a distance. NFC, on a card or a band, is the quickest to use and stays current when your details change. A wristband’s edge is that it’s already on you.

Most people end up using more than one. Here’s how they compare.

Paper still has real strengths. Anyone can take one, no phone or signal needed, and handing a card over is expected in plenty of formal settings.

The weak spots are what happens after. The card sits in a pocket until someone types your details into their phone, if they ever do. It only holds what fits on it. And the moment your number, job or handle changes, every card you’ve handed out is wrong, and you’re reprinting.

An NFC business card uses the same technology as an NFC wristband: a chip that holds a link to your page. A tap opens it, and you can update the page without replacing the card. For sharing, that’s a big step up from paper.

The difference is where it lives. A card sits in your wallet or phone case and comes out when you remember it. A band is on your wrist, so it’s there at a party, at the gym or on a night out. And one chip means one page, so everyone who taps a card gets the same thing unless you switch it beforehand.

QR codes work with nearly every smartphone camera, and a big enough code can be scanned from across a room. That makes them the right choice for posters, slides, name badges and anything on a screen.

Up close, they take more steps: open the camera, frame the code, wait for it to focus, tap the link. They need light, and a printed code can’t change where it points unless it goes through a page you control. That’s why the band comes with a QR pocket card for phones without NFC: it opens your Larp page the camera way.

It costs nothing and there’s nothing to carry. For one quick follow, it’s often enough.

It breaks down in loud rooms, with unusual spellings and with lookalike accounts, and it covers one platform at a time. Your number, your Instagram and your Discord are three separate conversations.

A wristband is for the moments you meet people in person and didn’t plan to: at school, at a party, at an event, at the gym. It’s already on you, one tap covers every platform on your page, and you can edit that page whenever you like.

A two-sided band adds one thing the other options don’t: a choice at the moment of sharing. Socials on the outside of your wrist for anyone, your number on the inside for people you trust. More on that in keep your number private.

The honest limits:

• The other person needs an NFC phone. Works with most NFC phones (recent iPhones and most NFC Android phones), no app. The QR card covers the rest.
• It’s splash-resistant (rain, sweat, hand-washing), not for swimming.
• If you never wear anything on your wrist, a card will suit you better.

• Meetings where cards are expected: bring paper, and let people tap too.
• Posters, slides and badges: a QR code, because people scan it from where they stand.
• Meeting people in person, day to day: a wristband, because it’s the one you won’t forget.
• One follow, one platform: just say your handle.

New to NFC? Start with how NFC wristbands work, or see the whole band on the NFC wristband page.