How to scan a QR code with your phone

The humble QR (or Quick Response) code has become ubiquitous. Invented back in the 1990s to scan car parts, the barcodes got a popularity boost during the pandemic when touchless tech became prioritized, and they’re now a regular part of daily life.

You’ll find them deployed to help you order food, connect to Wi-Fi, shop online, access tickets, prove your identity, and much more besides. They can either store information (about 3KB’s worth), or redirect you somewhere (like a website or an app page).

If you come across a QR code you want to read, you’ve got everything you need right on your phone.

How QR codes work

QR codes contain a small amount of data, typically under a hundred alphanumeric characters for the codes you’ll most often see day to day — although QR codes can get larger and more complex if more information needs to be stored. They can also have error correction built in, which adds to the size but means they’ll still work if part of the code is obscured or damaged.

A phone camera or other scanning device can read the information in a QR code, with the help of the three finder patterns at the corners: They tell the scanner where the QR code is, how big it is, …

Read the full story at The Verge.