Flipper Zero's major update 1.0 reworks NFC, adds a new IR remote control and enables walkie-talkie listening

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The Flipper Zero has been around for a few years now, having been released in August 2020. While it has been making waves around the world since then, an announced successor mysteriously disappeared and hasn't been heard from since. The Flipper team has been actively supporting the Flipper One all this time, and now the device's big 1.0 update is finally here. And it's large.




Note that some of these features are already available for Flipper Zero, but these are the finished versions of these features. For example, regarding dynamic app loading, the Flipper team told me the following when I asked how this is different from the dynamic app loading system that already exists.

Originally, every new fix for Flipper Zero required a full firmware update. Now, all features, including dynamic application loading, are integrated into this version. This allowed the team to overcome the limit of system flash memory and provide users with the latest version for their explorations. Version 1.0 brings together features that have been integrated over the past 3 years.


A new scripting engine and dynamic app loading

A way to get around limited storage space

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As the team at Flipper puts it, “At some point we couldn't add any more new features to our Flipper Zero firmware” because of storage limitations. Every new feature or fix required a full firmware update because apps were built into the system. Now they're packaged as Flipper Application Packages, or FAPs, and can be loaded directly from the microSD card. A new firmware component called the “App Loader” handles loading and launching these files, allowing new features to be added without requiring new flash storage.


This feature has been available for some time, but the Flipper team highlighted it as one of the main features of the 1.0 update. Additionally, you can install apps from the app catalog into the Flipper app using your PC or smartphone, simply by connecting to your pinball machine via Bluetooth. Also on Bluetooth, the Flipper team says Bluetooth Low Energy connections have been optimized to increase transfer speeds by up to 2x. Results may vary, but a combination of faster transfer speeds and better compression also means firmware updates are faster.


In addition, you can now run JavaScript on the Flipper Zero, making development much easier. You don't need to set up a development environment or learn the Flipper Zero Firmware SDK, as you can simply write the code and push it to your pinball machine. No compilation required and it requires less than 50KB of flash memory and only 2KB of RAM, as it is based on mJS, a JavaScript engine for microcontrollers.

A complete rewrite of NFC

Long awaited

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One of the biggest complaints about the Flipper Zero was its NFC support. While it worked, it was poorly optimized and lacked some key features. Now the Flipper team says it has been rewritten from the ground up, making it significantly faster and also supporting new NFC protocols.

  • FreeRTOS compatible: The previous library had to perform a poll to retrieve NFC events from the system, while the new library uses an event-driven approach.
  • Better architecture: The new protocol library has been restructured and divided into layers so that it can be easily modified.
  • Dynamic parsing: Card analysis was originally part of the NFC app and all parsers were loaded into RAM. This introduced several limitations, but the parsers are now Flipper App Library (FAL) files that can be loaded on demand.
  • New NFC protocols: Support for ICODE SLIX and FeliCa Lite-S cards has now been added.


In addition, you can edit your MiFare Classic NFC dumps via the Flipper mobile app. You can edit data of sectors, keys and access bits.

Sub 6GHz and other improvements

External modules, walkie-talkies and more

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In the Flipper Zero 1.0 update, the Sub-GHz app now supports decoding 89 different radio protocols. These protocols allow the pinball to interact with a wide variety of devices. For a full list of supported protocols, see the Flipper docs.


The update also introduces support for external sub-GHz hardware modules. By connecting a module with a CC1101 chip, users can choose a more sensitive external antenna instead of the built-in one. This is useful for improving signal reception, and switching between the built-in and external antennas can be done directly in the Sub-GHz app.

A completely new feature of the Flipper Zero allows you to listen to voice messages via analogue walkie-talkies. The sound quality via the Flipper's piezo speaker is not ideal, but if you speak loudly into the walkie-talkie, the voice transmission is audible, which ensures basic functions.


In addition, the update includes a new file format, BinRAW, for storing and sharing radio signals. BinRAW is more efficient than the previous RAW format because it records only the essential parts of repetitive signals and removes noise, which reduces file size and speeds up data transfer.

Finally, there are new universal infrared remote controls for controlling TVs, air conditioners, audio systems and projectors, and there is even support for an external infrared module to increase the range of the transmitter.

Update 1.0 for Flipper Zero is now available

You can install it with your PC or your phone

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The Flipper Zero 1.0 update is here and you can install it immediately using the Flipper Mobile app or qFlipper on PC. Once installed, you will benefit from all the new features and improvements described here. The update also includes an improvement in standby battery life, giving the battery life in standby mode up to one month. Previously, the battery life in standby mode was one week.

Further information on downloading the update can be found here.

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