The two-sided NFC wristband.

NFC stands for near-field communication. It’s the short-range radio your phone already uses for tap-to-pay. An NFC wristband (you’ll also see NFC band or NFC bracelet) is a band with a small NFC chip inside it.

The chip has no battery. When a phone comes within a few centimetres, the phone’s NFC reader powers the chip for a moment and reads what’s stored on it. Then the phone decides what to do with it.

Most NFC wristbands out there are event bands: festival tickets, gym access, cashless payment at a resort. Their chips hold an ID that a scanner at the door checks. A contact-sharing wristband is simpler. Its chip holds one web link, and a phone that reads it opens that link in its browser.

That’s what Larp2Alt is: a silicone NFC wristband made for sharing yourself. Someone taps your wrist, your page opens on their phone, and they can follow you or save your contact without typing a thing.

A contact-sharing band with one chip gives everyone the same thing. Larp2Alt has two chips on opposite sides of your wrist, so you decide who gets what.

Larp: the outside of your wrist

The chip under the raised face. This is the persona you play: the socials you don’t mind anyone seeing, like Instagram, TikTok, Discord or Snapchat. It’s the easy tap. You just hold out your wrist.

Alt: the inside of your wrist

The Alt chip is a thin NFC tag sealed on the inside of the band's bottom, against your wrist, so you won't see it from outside. Flip your wrist and tap the bottom of the band. This is the real you: your phone number, email or WhatsApp, for people you actually trust.

Put any link on Larp, Alt or both, and change it anytime in your dashboard. Why the split matters, and how to use it, is in how to share your socials and keep your number private.

Each side opens its own page with your name, a photo if you want one, and your links as buttons. The person tapping also gets two actions:

• Save contact hands their phone your contact card, so they can add you without typing. It carries the details from the side they tapped.
• Send yours back lets them share their details with you, if they choose to.

Links that start on Larp: Instagram, LinkedIn, Discord, Snapchat, TikTok, X, GitHub, YouTube, Spotify and Website. Links that start on Alt: Phone, Email, WhatsApp, Telegram, Venmo and Cash App. Those are only starting points; any link can go on either side, or both.

The one people ask about most is Instagram. The walkthrough is in how to share your Instagram with a tap.

Works with most NFC phones (recent iPhones and most NFC Android phones), no app. Nothing gets installed on the other person’s phone: the tap opens a normal web page.

• iPhone: hold the top of the back, near the camera to the band, not the screen. A notification slides down; tap it to open the page.
• Android: hold the middle of the back to the band, with NFC switched on. It usually is, because tap-to-pay uses it. The page opens in the browser.

Hold still for about a second. Thick cases and some older phones read less reliably. For a phone without NFC, the box includes a QR pocket card that opens your Larp side.

More detail, including what to do when a tap doesn’t read, is in how NFC wristbands work.

The chip stores a link to your page, not your details. Your name, links and number live on the page, which is why you can change them any time from your dashboard and the band keeps working: the next tap shows the new version.

We write and lock both chips before your band ships, so nobody can reprogram them to point somewhere else. If you lose the band, switch it off from your dashboard. Taps then stop showing your page until you switch it back on.

When someone taps you, you see the time and an approximate city, never their exact location or who they are. They only share their details with you if they choose to send theirs back.

• Fit: Adjustable · fits most wrists.
• Colour: black, for now.
• Water: Splash-resistant (rain, sweat, hand-washing), not for swimming.
• Power: none. No battery and nothing to charge: the phone that taps it powers the chip.
• In the box: the band and a QR pocket card for phones without NFC.
• Edition: Founders Edition · hand-assembled first run.

Wondering whether a band beats a business card or a QR code for you? We compared them honestly in NFC wristband vs business card.