QR Codes in 2018: Making a Comeback

February 26, 2019 Ivars Leitis

What is a QR Code?

A QR or Quick Response code can be used in different ways: display text, add a vCard, open a URL or compose an email.

QR codes first made their appearance to the general public during the early days of smartphones. However, since most phones lacked a native scanning application, QR codes faded into obscurity (at least in North America).

Did you know?

QR codes were used in $1.65 trillion worth of transactions in China in 2017. The largest social network in China, WeChat relies on QR codes to connect users, transfer payments, link pages and more.

Applications even have their own versions of QR codes, such as Snapchat’s SnapCode, Facebook’s Messenger Code, Twitter’s QR code or Spotify’s QR Code.

Currently, Facebook is testing a “QR code option for Pages” which can be configured to:

Automatically Like the Page
Check In to the location
Connect to a Recommend screen
Connect to the “View Offers” page

Apple even quietly added a QR code scanner in iOS 11, which came out mid-2017. iOS phones represent approximately 44.3% of the US smartphone subscribers. Android phones can also scan QR codes (with Google Screen Search enabled), which represent 54.5% of US phone smartphone subscribers.