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Comment by walrus01 | Hacker News Reader

Is it only Android 10 that can do this with scanning a qr code, or also v9?

I believe it's only Android 10 onwards that has the QR Code scanning feature [1][2][3] since it was added by Google in order to support the new Wi-Fi Easy Connect standard [4] (the replacement for WPS).

[1] https://9to5google.com/2019/03/13/android-q-wi-fi-sharing-qr...

[2] https://www.androidpolice.com/2019/09/12/every-new-android-1...

[3] https://www.androidpolice.com/2019/06/10/android-qs-wi-fi-ea...

[4] https://www.wi-fi.org/discover-wi-fi/wi-fi-easy-connect

This has been a thing for longer than I can remember. Many many years, it should only depend on what your QR scanner are capable of (and that will vary since most use their default camera app for scanning QR codes and most manufacturers ship their own - but by now I hope even older phones have it).

Android 10 made som more specific features for this, such as automatically generating the QR code for others and scanning QR directly from the wifi settings.

But on other versions, it depends on the 3rd party app you use for QR code scanning. From the screenshots, it seems like certain versions of Android have this available directly from the Wi-Fi password screen, without the need for a 3rd party application.

That's what I thought I said...

The 3rd party application usually is just your bundled camera app.

Are you deliberately trying to be confusing? A "bundled camera" is the exact opposite of a 3rd party app. 3rd party would mean one must install it from the playstore.

Sorry, 3rd party in the sense that it is not part of Android.

Almost every manufacturer ships their own camera app so it is hard to know what features are present given a certain Android phone.

Android 9: Camera search icon on Google assistant (long press "home" and cancel voice command) offers "join network" option for this kind of QR code

I had to install Google Lens first. When I tap join network, the reply is that I have to manually join the network. This is Android 9, and is an Android One phone (yes, still on Android 9 and not even a year old).

Update: Actually it works with the build-in Camera. Point to QR, it decodes it and shows SSID and password, there's a wifi icon button, and pressing that immediately connects.

Nice! BTW, the camera search icon is called Google Lens.

i don't see any built-in way to do it on android 9, but the xzing barcode scanner app works perfectly.

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.google.zxi...

Well ZXing invented the Wifi format[1].

If, for whatever reason, you wanted to do this with older iOS you had to use a configuration profile[2]. This would be distributed as a PList that you'd link to in the QR code. Which means the device needs to be connected to a network to download it first. A captive portal could help with that, or put it on the internet maybe protected with a geofence so you're not advertising your password to the world.

[1] https://github.com/zxing/zxing/wiki/Barcode-Contents#wi-fi-n...

[2] https://developer.apple.com/business/documentation/Configura...

It works on Android Pie with the Binary Eye code scanner app.

https://f-droid.org/en/packages/de.markusfisch.android.binar...

Android 8.1.0 has at least support in the OS, but not in the Wi-Fi UI

I have Android 8.1.0 (LineageOS 15.1), and a generic 'barcode reader' app (https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.google.zxi...) and it works just fine.

Open the barcode scanner app, scan QR code, and it says "Requesting access to network'

The default camera app on my Moto G7 (Android 9) scans QR codes. When it detects this format inside a QR it offers a 'connect to wifi' button.

Oddly the G7 Play camera just stares dumbly at the QR.

When I use a third-party reader it shows that a password containing special characters really confuses this particular notation, since colons and semicolons are also used for field delimiters. Even if I escape them when passing the argument to qrencode, the parser app stumbles on them.

Was wondering the same. The author didn't mention the minimum required version for Android compared to IOS, so I assumed Android must have long supported it and I always just missed it.

On another note I find it quite awkward that the feature is buried in that dialog on Android. You even need to tap on the network you want to connect to when that information is already in the qr code.

> You even need to tap on the network you want to connect to when that information is already in the qr code.

On my OnePlus 6T the scan QR code button [1] is next to 'Add network' so you don't have to select the Wi-Fi network first.

[1] https://i.imgur.com/qTicNpI.png

I think they added the QR code Wifi URI in Android 6, it's been a while. It's mostly an issue with apps supporting it, and to be honest I can't believe it's still not a standard feature of the camera apps on all Android devices, like the iPhone does.

Works for me on Android 7.0 on Xiaomi Redmi Note 4X 4G Phablet since 2017 with the com.xiaomi.scanner app.

Bonus: I can also share my WiFi settings by opening a QR code on my phones display.

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