Build it from a photo of your old paper card: the AI setup, wallet passes, NFC and QR

Everyone agrees a digital business card is a good idea. Many people still carry paper. The reason is not cost. It is the evening you imagine spending on it: typing in every detail, writing a bio you will delete three times, choosing colours, finding a photo, and then working out how to actually share the thing.

Newbi was designed to remove that evening. Here is what actually happens, from a photo of the card in your wallet to a stranger tapping their phone against yours.

Step one: sign up with an email

Create an account with your email. There is no password to invent: Newbi sends you a one-time code. You can also sign in with Google or Apple. No payment details are needed, and the 14-day free trial starts straight away.

Step two: hand Naya your old card

Naya is Appetite Technology's proprietary AI, built into Newbi. Instead of a blank form, you have two ways to start:

• Take a photo of your old paper business card. Naya reads it and fills in your name, title, company, phone, email and whatever else is printed on it.
• Or describe your business in a sentence. "I'm a physiotherapist in Umhlanga, I do sports rehab and I want people to book online."

From either, Naya fills in your details, writes your bio and picks a style to suit your kind of business. Later, it can draft product descriptions too. You are not starting from nothing. You are editing a first draft, which is a much easier job.

Step three: make it yours

The editor shows a live preview, so every change appears as you make it. There are 17 themes across four moods, your own photo, and the sections you choose to show: contact details and socials, the mini-store, your price list, the booking button and the lead capture form.

Add at minimum a photo, your WhatsApp number and your email. If you sell anything, add it with prices. If people book you, switch on bookings. The card's buttons, booking steps and forms can be shown in eight languages, with the whole layout right to left in Arabic.

Step four: publish and share

When you publish, your card has its own link and QR code, and on Pro and above a wallet pass. Each one is a different way of opening the same card.

The link. Put it in your WhatsApp Business profile, your Instagram bio, your Google Business Profile and your email signature. Send it in a chat and the recipient sees a page, not a photo of a card. On the Professional plan, the link can be your own domain.

The QR code. Print it on your counter, your vehicle, your invoices, your packaging. Any phone camera scans it, with no app.

The wallet pass. Add your card to Apple Wallet or Google Wallet, and it sits next to your bank cards. In person, open Wallet, show the pass, and the other person scans the QR code on it. It works whatever phone they have, because all they do is scan. Wallet passes come with Pro and above. (For the iPhone side in detail, read how to add a business card to Apple Wallet.)

The NFC card. Newbi NFC cards are physical cards you tap against someone's phone, and your digital card opens on their screen. No app, no typing. The card holds only a link, so when you update your details, every NFC card already handed out opens the new version. NFC cards work on every plan and are ordered from the dashboard.

Step five: track what comes back

A paper card gives and never receives. Every contact form sent from your Newbi card lands in your dashboard, ready to follow up. You can open a WhatsApp chat with a new lead in one tap, export your leads as a CSV file or a single lead as a vCard, and on Professional send them to your CRM by webhook, which works with tools such as Zapier and Make.

You can manage your card, leads and bookings from the Newbi app on iPhone and Android too.

What the other person needs

Nothing. Whoever you share the card with opens it in their browser, on iPhone or Android, without installing anything. They can save your contact, message you on WhatsApp, book you, order from you or leave their details, all from the page that opened when they scanned, tapped or clicked.

How long it takes

Signing up, photographing your old card, checking Naya's draft and publishing is a job for a tea break, not an evening. Adding products and bookings takes a little longer, and you can do it after the card is live.

Plans

Newbi has no free plan, and every plan starts with a 14-day free trial with no payment details needed. Prices below are monthly in South Africa, with local prices in other countries.

• Newbie, R79: one card, every theme and QR sharing.
• Pro, R189: three cards, the mini-store, bookings and Apple and Google Wallet passes.
• Professional, R399: ten cards, leads sent to your CRM, a custom domain and priority support.
• Enterprise: custom pricing and dedicated onboarding for larger teams.

Yearly plans cost the price of ten months. Take the card out of your wallet, photograph it, and let Naya build the rest.