How I Built a Digital Business Card App with Flutter, HCE, and Claude Code

After 25 years in industrial maintenance, I shipped my first mobile app. Here's the technical breakdown.

The Stack

• Flutter - Single codebase for Android (iOS coming)
• Firebase - Auth, Firestore, Cloud Storage
• Claude Code - AI-assisted development and debugging

The Challenge: Native NFC Emulation (HCE)

Most "digital business card" apps just generate QR codes. I wanted real NFC tap-to-share, like Google Pay but for contact info.

Android's Host Card Emulation (HCE) lets your phone act as an NFC card. The tricky part: implementing NDEF message handling properly.

Flutter doesn't have great HCE packages, so I had to write platform channels to handle the native Android side.

Why Claude Code Changed Everything

As a solo developer, Claude Code was a game-changer:

• Multi-file refactoring without losing context
• Debugging NFC edge cases methodically
• Writing Firebase security rules correctly the first time

I also tested Gemini Pro 3 - excellent for reasoning through architecture decisions, but Claude Code was more reliable for actual implementation.

Lessons Learned

1. Start with Firebase - Zero backend setup, ship faster
2. Flutter hot reload - Iteration speed is insane
3. HCE is underused - Most devs don't know Android phones can emulate NFC cards natively

Try It

👉 https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.cardscontrol.app

Questions about the implementation? Ask in the comments.