I posted a while back about the differences in two NFC tags that I have.  I’ve since got a Nexus 7 and started wanting to use some of my tags with it.  I’ve ran into a few other differences.  I was aware of the issue, but didn’t think it mattered unless I was doing something wild.  Apparently not.

The first tag is a Tags for Droid tag.  In the second picture, a screen shot from my N7, there is an error: that tag type is not supported.

If you’ve read the other post, you can already see where this is going.

The second tag is from Tagstand (full disclosure: Tagstand sent me two free tags in a promo a while back – this had nothing to do with my blog, I just asked for them, like many others).

These tags are different and they work.  They’re also thinner.

Final word: the thick tags DO work on my Galaxy Nexus phone, so there still is a use.  They’re not bad, just not compatible with my Nexus 7.

I’ve been playing around with NFC tags a lot lately.  I have one with my contact info ready to go to a conference with me, I have one on my gym bag to open Endomondo and Google Play Music.  I have one on my keychain that opens a note for me of things I deem important if I’m going somewhere (the note is in Evernote, so I can change it pretty easily).

I originally bought a pack of tags and a keychain from tagsfordroid.com through Amazon.  These tags are pretty beefy.  In using NFC Task Launcher, I posted a twitter update that ultimately earned me two free tags from tagstand.  I noticed theirs seems much thinner.

The differences are substantial, as illustrated in the image below.

The tagstand sticker is a normal sticker thickness.  The tagsfordroid.com sticker is much thicker.

The image below shows the entire group – the two tags from tagstand and a stack of tags from tagsfordroid and a set of a dozen decals to apply to the tags so you know what your tags do.

Disclaimers:

While the tags provided by tagstand were free, they do this for anyone that downloads the NFC Task Launcher app and posts a twitter update using the application.  They aren’t aware I’m writing this, the tags were not provided to help write this, and I’ve not been offered any compensation for writing this.

I am not trying to show that one is better than the other.  Both tags work.  There are times one may want a thicker tag, and there are times that one may want a thinner tag.  The purpose of this post is to illustrate a difference between the two.