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Comment by sergiomattei | Hacker News Reader

Do regular people (outside the tech bubble) even use QR codes anymore?

Using them involves installing a reader app, and even when embedded in phone camera apps, the functionality is hidden or implicit.

QR codes look cool and feel like the future, but they seem like something that never really materialized in becoming widespread to the general populace.

Not arguing against this product per se, but QR codes in general...

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QR Codes for payment are absolutely _huge_ in China & a few other countries. So is QR Codes for authentication (WeChat & WhatsApp use them) and a few other uses.

I feel like both Google and Apple has just want QR codes to go away. Some of their apps use QR codes for very specific purposes, like setups, but neither of them provide a generic QR code scanning app.

The Twitter app on Android actually has a built in generic QR scanner for whatever reason, but for most purposes I use ZXing team's Barcode Scanner app. I've been looking towards using a QR code keyboard to semi-safely let me input complex passwords in apps.

[EDIT] Another reply notes that the Apple camera app actually does scan QR codes out of the box. I haven't used an iPhone / iPod in years so made an incorrect guess.

[EDIT] Apparently some Google made Android phones do actually have some QR code support in the default camera app, but the Nexus 6P (Huawei, but under the now defunct Nexus program) certainly doesn't.

iOS also 13 has built in qr-code scanner accessible from the control center.

iOS 12 Camera app can scan QR codes.

The Google Assistant/Lens stuff on Android phones has QR scanning integrated.

I took this image [1] yesterday in a fairly nice italian restaurant in Vientiane, Laos.

It stood out to me because of all the qrcodes and because they are all Chinese payment providers. China is building dams, roads and railways all across Laos. The workers bring their families. The families need to eat. Apparently, they like italian food.

I could go on and talk about thoughts on Libra related to this, but I would probably get downvoted. =)

[1] https://imgur.com/a/SFuqTkM

It looks like there are two Laotian payment providers -- BCEL OnePay and LDB Trust -- and two Chinese payment providers -- WeChat (which has two signs there) and AliPay.

Here in Southeast Asia, many payment providers are springing up and they all use the same QR-code approach that the original WeChat and AliPay use, so it makes sense that BCEL and LDB Trust are doing the same.

The only non-tech legit use I've seen is coffee shops loyalty points. Although you could go in and scan the code every day without buying a coffee.

Could you just take a picture of it and reuse it later?

You could! Unless they are changing the code every day but I doubt it.

I'm just surprised that it hasn't taken off in the West. It's super useful for a lot of things. I suspect that a lack of QR code implementation in apps for Facebook and Twitter has a lot to do with it. Kinda prevents mass adoptions when they haven't found a usecase for it, though all those Asian sites clearly have.

More used in places where the local alphabet isn't latin characters and remembering/typing latin-based URLs, usernames and email addresses is more difficult. (although even there they rely more on "do a web search on this phrase")

Scanning a venmo code is a daily occurence for younger people these days. Same with the snapchat codes. Its quick and easy, especially for drunk people. QR codes rock, but yeah, they need to be adopted as standard by google and apple.

TPAs (credit card readers) in Portugal use QR Codes to let you pay your meals via phone. It’s pretty seamless.

iOS camera reads QR codes by default. Just point your phone with the default camera app ON. No special mode required. I have a qr code printed on my living room (made to look like andy warhold art, with multiple colored panels etc) so that guests can use the wifi. Pretty convenient.

Sounds great.

But I explicitly asked "outside the tech bubble".

Do real end users even know that these features exist? I've barely seen anyone use QR codes in the wild.

I feel my question was misinterpreted - it's not that I don't find QR codes useful or that technical people don't use them, but I believe the widespread populace aren't aware of the features that allow their use.

Well, the fact that one of the biggest phone OS supports QR codes natively in the camera, severely reduces the friction that comes from "what's that weird thing, oh it's called a QR code, here's download this app on the appstore. No, not that one, it has a bitcoin miner in it. Yes the free one". Just point your phone to it and it works! Now whether the world outside caught on, or not... where I am from definitely not, however the biggest barrier was the problem I described above.

Last year, my entire track team had to sign up by QR code.

Personally, I think that QR codes will only ever become more ubiquitous- there's plenty of easy QR code generators out there- as people move towards mobile devices and things that have always-accessible cameras.

Not many people like typing in long URL's to get somewhere.

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