Apple may introduce new NFC features with iOS 12

"The change to the near-field communication, or NFC, chip, which is expected to be announced next month, could pave the way for people to use iPhones for other security-sensitive interactions, from paying transit fares and opening car doors to verifying their identity in other ways," tech website The Information reported late on Friday.

Notably, since Apple first launched NFC-capable devices iPhone 6 and 6s in 2014, its implementation of NFC has been primarily restricted to "Apple Pay" transactions.

"Apple employees are already using their iPhones to unlock doors at Apple Park, likely via custom badge readers detailed in Federal Communications Commission filings last year," the report added.

With the new capabilities, iPhones would be able to unlock NFC-enabled doors and potentially transmit data to transit systems, personal authentication devices and more. 

The iPhone-maker has been slow to evolve its NFC policies since adopting the technology nearly four years ago but the company has made moves to expand its limited feature set over the past year, according to Apple Insider.

Meanwhile, in 2014, when the tech giant was talking with HID about enabling iPhone to access buildings, it also discussed allowing the phone to emulate transit cards made by Cubic -- whose transit fare systems are used by tens of millions of people.