What happens when I tap an NFC tag which contains a URL? I don't have an NFC 'phone to try it out. A colleague absolutely insists that if you tap an NFC tag which stores a URL then that URL is launched automatically by the operating system.

That doesn't sound right to me and the developer docs says 


  Reading NDEF data from an NFC tag is handled with the tag dispatch
  system, which analyzes discovered NFC tags, appropriately categorizes
  the data, and starts an application that is interested in the
  categorized data. An application that wants to handle the scanned NFC
  tag can declare an intent filter and request to handle the data.


That sounds like what I expected (a BroadcastReceiver - or possibly a listener?). Can I tell him categorically that he is 100% wrong?

The reason being that he wants me to develop a small system for him and, while I see that I need a minimal Android app to listen for an NFC Tap event and then launch the browser, he insists that no app is needed and that any NFC enabled Android device, fresh from the factory, when tapping an NFC tag containing a URL will launch the browser to that URL.
From trying it on two devices:

Galaxy S4 Google Play Edition: Lollipop 5.0, with multiple browsers. Once tagged the prompt to choose my browser comes up, and then once chosen opens the URL in the selected browser. The device was factory reset that morning. 

HTC M7: Stock 4.4 up to date, no reset done, one browser. Opened straight in the browser.