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Comment by throwaway66666 | Hacker News Reader

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.

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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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