@neillans Depends on which iPhone you have. 10X and newer as well as the SE 2020 and 2022 do have background NFC reading but older ones don’t. Keep in mind on both iOS and android some types of NFC tags are locked in such a way they May still require an app.
@zuhair Thanks! Will do some experimentation :) It's a 13 that I have for testing, but noticed that some older written tags work on Android but not iOS. Been a while since I poked iOS!