Use your own NFC cards
Stillna works with most NFC cards and NFC tags, not only with Stillna's own cards. The guide goes through which cards work, what to look for when you buy a blank tag, and how the card is added in the app.
Good to know first
- An NFC tag is a chip with an antenna, built into a card, a sticker or a token. It has no battery. The phone's NFC reader powers the chip through its radio field when the tag is within a few centimetres, and the chip answers with its serial number.
- Stillna reads the serial number and links it to a rule saved on the phone. The app writes nothing to the card.
- A card works only on the phones where it has been added. Each phone adds the card once.
- The card closes layers. It never opens a layer early. If the card's time ends while the schedule has the layer closed, the layer stays closed until the schedule opens it. The exception is a card added as Scrolling.
- Everything a card does can also be done in the app or with the schedule.
- The guide is for your own phone. For a child's phone, see Screen Time on your child's iPhone, Assistive Access and Family Link on Android.
Here's how
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A card that is read without contact has an antenna and usually carries the contactless symbol: four arcs growing in one direction.
A card with only a magnetic stripe, or only a contact chip with a gold surface, has no antenna. The phone cannot read it.
Four arcs growing outwards: the card has an antenna and is read without contact.
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Do not use bank cards, payment cards or ID cards.
Travel cards, access badges and hotel keys often have a protected serial number, or one that changes with every read. The phone then does not recognise the card the next time, and the card cannot be added.
Cards that usually work: blank NFC tags, old membership cards and tags that came with a product.
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Blank NFC tags are sold in electronics shops and online. Search for NTAG213.
- Chip: NTAG213, NTAG215 or NTAG216. All three work. NTAG213 is enough.
- Avoid MIFARE Classic: iPhone does not support that type, and many Android phones do not read it either.
- Shape: card, sticker or token. A small sticker is read at a shorter distance than a card, because the antenna is smaller.
- Metal: on fridges, steel door frames and other metal surfaces, only tags sold as on-metal work. Metal behind an ordinary tag disturbs the reading.
The tag needs no preparation with any app. A tag straight out of the pack works.
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Open Stillna and go to Settings › Cards. The list shows the cards that have been added, with their name, which layers they close and the end time.
Tap Add card.
Settings › Cards: one row per card, with the layers it closes and the end time.
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iPhone: the NFC reader is in the top edge. Stillna must be open.
Android: NFC must be turned on in the phone's settings. The antenna is usually in the middle of the back, but the position varies between models.
The distance should be a couple of centimetres at most. Take the card out of a thick wallet or holder, take a thick case off the phone, and keep both away from metal.
If the card is not read: move the card slowly along the edge or the back, and turn it over. If it is still not read, it is a card type the phone cannot read, or a card with a protected serial number. Use a blank NTAG tag instead.
iPhone reads at the top edge, at a couple of centimetres at most, with the app open.
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- Name: the place or the occasion, for example Hallway, Dinner or Film night.
- Closes: Flöde, Produktiv and Flöde, or all three layers. Phone and Messages always work.
- Ends: after a set time, at a clock time, or when the schedule next changes the layer.
- Stay open (optional): apps from a closed layer that should work anyway, for example SVT Play on a film night. They stay open only if the layer is open when the card is held to the phone.
Tap Add.
A card can instead be added as Scrolling. It opens Flöde for the number of minutes you set, once a day, and all other choices are then switched off.
The settings are changed under Settings › Cards. A change made while a layer is closed applies from the next time the layer opens.
Name, layers and end time. Then Add.
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Put the card where it will be used: in the hallway, in the kitchen or by the bed. A card to be used on several phones is added on each of them.
Try it the first time with a short time, for example 15 minutes. A layer the card has closed follows the same rules as when the schedule has closed it.
If the card does not work, write which card it is and which phone you have through the contact form. The details are used to keep the guide up to date.
A card on the hallway wall.
Questions? Write through the contact form or on Instagram, @stillna.app (opens in a new tab).