Featuređź’ˇNearby transfers

Building Neo
1

QR Code & Nearby Transfers

User Story

As someone who splits bills and sends money to friends,
I want to send or receive a transfer without typing out email addresses or account details,
So that the whole thing takes seconds instead of minutes.

What This Does

Two ways to skip the manual entry dance when sending money to someone nearby:

  1. QR Code — generate a scannable code tied to your e-transfer details; anyone can scan it to send you money instantly.

  2. Nearby Transfer — use Bluetooth and GPS to find Neo users around you and initiate a transfer without sharing any contact info.

Quick lunch option

Use accelerometer, so that when a person opens neo app and shakes the phone the quick transfer UI automatically lunches.

Functional Requirements

Part 1 — QR Code Transfers

  • Configure your e-transfer receiving details once inside the app

  • The system verifies your details are correct by sending and immediately recovering a nominal amount (e.g. $1 CAD)

  • Generate a personal QR code that encodes all the info needed to send you money

  • Scan another user’s QR code directly from the app to initiate a transfer

  • When both users have Neo and e-transfer configured:

  • Scanning a QR code shows the recipient’s info and prompts you to enter an amount

  • Transfer initiates immediately

  • QR codes are designed to be scannable upside-down — so when two people face each other, neither has to flip their phone

Part 2 — Nearby Transfer (Bluetooth + GPS)

  • Enable nearby transfer mode from within the app

  • The app detects other Neo users in the immediate area via Bluetooth and GPS

  • Select a nearby user and initiate a transfer without exchanging any contact details

Related Community Discussion

There’s already an interesting thread on the forum proposing Tap To Transfer via NFC — tapping phones together to initiate a transfer. The core idea is similar: frictionless peer-to-peer payments without typing in recipient details.

The QR and Nearby Transfer approach described here is partially a response to why NFC alone is difficult to build reliably:

  • Apple restricts NFC for third-party apps — peer-to-peer NFC transfers outside of Apple’s own stack (Apple Pay, Wallet) are not accessible to third-party developers, making an iOS implementation effectively impossible without Apple’s cooperation

  • Android Beam was deprecated in Android 10 (2019) and never replaced with a cross-platform standard

  • OEM fragmentation — Samsung, Google Pixel, OnePlus and others expose NFC and secure element access differently at the OS level, meaning behaviour would be inconsistent across devices

  • Cross-platform (iOS ↔ Android) NFC P2P is essentially unsolved — there’s no open standard that covers it without OS-level manufacturer agreements

QR codes sidestep all of this: they require only a camera, work identically on every device, and are cross-platform by default. Nearby Transfer via Bluetooth + GPS avoids the NFC access problem while still enabling contactless discovery.

Which would you use more — QR or nearby? Are there other friction points in e-transfers that would be good to solve?

2

You only need to type out an email once then it will save in your history. And as for finding Neo users around you. That does feel kind of like an invasion of privacy if you find other people that you aren’t trying to send to, but that’s just my thoughts on this!

3

I wouldn’t use either one. I don’t think entering an email or phone number is an issue to begin with.

The complexity/effort (besides the obvious issues) to implement either one is not worth the trouble.

4

Actually it’s more secure and way more private:

  1. it only shows you people who are in quick transfer mode, 2nd - you see only the public information they defined.
  2. because you are using neo communication channel and not sending you mail via sms whatsapp or whatever - it’s more secure and more private)
5

I think it would be a great idea for there to be Neo to Neo transfers. Everyone would get a username or cashtag or something like that.

6

The biggest problem I see with all of this is that not only do you have to have the Neo App and use a Neo “Chequing” account, but you also need to convince everyone else you interact with to do the same.

I think I prefer just getting their phone number, if I don’t already have it. That way I can send them an SMS test message and confirm they got it before I copy their number over to my banking app so I don’t throw my money into a black hole.

7

I would tone it down, like Neo would have a QR code they can scan which links to a webpage which have your e-transfer or direct deposit info

8

My worry is fraud users find you