NFC technology was introduced in the RIA DigiDoc mobile application in 2024, making signing with an ID-card significantly more convenient and contactless.
Near-field communication (NFC) is a technology that allows data transmission over short distances using radio waves. In the case of RIA DigiDoc, this means that, once the user has entered their details, they can place their ID-card against their phone and complete the operation without needing a card reader.
The new solution has been well received by users and, as a result, the use of physical card readers has declined significantly. This paves the way for phasing out the use of card readers in the RIA DigiDoc application and increasing the share of NFC-based solutions.
From autumn 2026, developers of web services will be able to integrate with the Web eID for Mobile protocol. This enables users to use an ID-card in their mobile device’s web browser for authentication and to provide digital signatures in e-services using the RIA DigiDoc mobile app on the same device and the ID-card via the NFC interface.
In addition, RIA has developed NFC libraries for both iOS and Android platforms. These tools enable developers of mobile applications to create solutions that allow users to authenticate themselves and sign documents using their ID-card and an NFC interface directly in the mobile application.
More information on NFC libraries and their implementation can be found in the documentation for developers: https://github.com/open-eid/nfc-iOS-lib and https://github.com/open-eid/nfc-Android-lib.
