How to scan a QR code on iPhone and Android

Open your camera app, point it at the code, and tap the link that appears. That is the whole process on any phone made in the last several years. No download, no account, no separate scanner app.

Do I need an app to scan a QR code?

No. iPhones have read QR codes through the built-in camera since iOS 11 shipped in 2017. Android phones have carried the same ability for about as long, through the camera app or Google Lens. If an app store listing calls itself a QR scanner, you can skip it. Many of those apps exist to show you ads on the way to a link your camera would have opened for free, and some ask for permissions a scanner has no business holding.

How do I scan a QR code on an iPhone?

• Open the Camera app in Photo mode.
• Point it at the code so the whole square sits in the frame.
• Tap the yellow link or the banner that appears.

iPhones also hide a dedicated scanner in Control Center. Swipe down from the top-right corner and look for the Code Scanner tile. It opens links in a reduced browser view, which keeps a scanned page out of your Safari tabs.

How do I scan a QR code on Android?

• Open the camera app and hold it on the code for a second.
• Tap the link that pops up.
• If nothing pops up, tap the Google Lens icon inside the camera app and point again.

Recent Android versions add a QR scanner tile to Quick Settings, the panel you reach by swiping down from the top of the screen. If your camera app predates QR support, Google Lens inside the Google app reads codes on every Android phone.

Why won't my QR code scan?

Work through these in order. One of them fixes almost every failed scan.

• Distance. Back up. Cameras focus poorly a few centimeters from paper. Hold the phone 25 to 50 cm away and let the focus settle.
• Lighting. A code in shadow reads as gray on gray. Turn on the flash or angle the paper toward light.
• Glare. Laminated menus and glossy posters bounce light straight into the lens. Tilt the phone until the bright patch slides off the code.
• Size. A code smaller than 2 x 2 cm strains most cameras at arm's length. If you printed it, print it bigger.
• Damage and contrast. A scuffed code, a low-contrast color pair, or an oversized logo over the middle can push a code past what error correction absorbs.

If someone else's code fails after all that, the code itself may be dead. Dynamic codes depend on a redirect service, and some platforms switch redirects off when a trial ends.

Is it safe to scan a QR code?

Reading a code does nothing to your phone. The risk sits in the link, the same as a link in an email. Before you tap, read the address your camera shows and check the domain matches where you expect to land. Security researchers call QR phishing "quishing", and it leans on the fact that a code hides its destination until you scan.

Three habits cover most of it:

• Look for stickers. A code pasted over another code on a parking meter or a poster deserves suspicion.
• Distrust urgency. "Scan now to avoid a fine" is a phishing pattern, on paper as on email.
• Guard your credentials. Check the address bar before typing a password or card details into any scanned page.

What do people put behind QR codes?

Menus, Wi-Fi access, review links, contact cards, payment pages. Our use case guides walk through the common ones, with printing and tracking advice for each. And if you came here because you need a code rather than a scan, the free generator makes one in under a minute, with no account, and it never expires.