Yeah I went through this whole struggle making qr code generators. It’s honestly kind of a nightmare and we should just invent something better:
- phones have different cameras and processing
- you want redundancy in the qr (the data is duplicated) but too much makes the dots too small and quickly toasts reliability
- short urls are everything, because then you can store less data and replicate it a bit more
- even still, various combos of data & phone will refuse a scan and cause support tickets
- people are still quite confused about how you’re supposed to scan them, so you have to explain on the card/flyer. Thankfully basically all phone cameras do it by default, but variations in the software don’t help, and the ux can differ a bit
- people don’t love sketchy links in general, and if the scan is taking too long to aim right, they will give up
- qrs are ugly and changes in color or adding logos quickly causes problems. Qrs don’t support logos, people just put em on and use the error correction (as if it’s a defect). Lack of spec means logos must be very small
So yeah how about a thing that works and looks good, next time our civilization reinvents bar codes
Can’t remember the last time I scanned a qr code, are they used in some businesses or something?
Many restaurants have their menu just being a qr code nowadays. It became usual during covid, but manu stull keep it on the tables. The other day I was told explicitly to use it since they didn’t have a physical version.
They’re still used for instant login on multiplatform services like Steam or Discord. A device that’s not logged in will show a QR code next to the login prompt, and scanning it with a logged in device will show a prompt to allow the other device to log in to your account without needing to enter a username or password.
Other than that, I only see them at restaurants to open their menus in a web browser.
They’re pretty useful for sharing wifi logins in person for smartphones, for example.
