A web address is the common case, but a QR code can also hand over WiFi details, save a contact, start an email or a text, open a map, add a calendar event or simply carry text — no website involved.
The types available
- WebsiteAny web address, including your bio page
- vCardSaves your name, number and details straight to their contacts
- WiFiJoins your network without anyone reading a password aloud
- EmailOpens a new message to you, subject and body prefilled
- SMSOpens a text to your number, message prefilled
- PhoneStarts a call
- LocationOpens the map at a point
- EventOffers to add a date to their calendar
- AppSends iPhones and Android phones to their own stores
- FileAn image or PDF you upload — a menu, a manual, a price list
- SocialStraight to one of your profiles
- TextPlain text, shown as-is
Picking the right one
The test is what should happen in the two seconds after the scan. A code on a café table that opens a PDF menu is doing its job; the same code pointing at the café's homepage makes the customer hunt for the menu themselves.
- One code, one job A code that could mean three things gets scanned by nobody.
- Point at a page if there is more than one job Your bio page can hold the menu, the booking link and the playlist behind one code.
- Say what it does next to it "Scan for the wine list" outperforms a bare square every time.
Types that hold data rather than a linkWiFi, vCard and text codes contain the information itself, so they work without a connection — and they cannot be changed or counted afterwards, because nothing of yours is involved in the scan.
Related: dynamic versus static.