Bring back menus, QR codes are terrible

My biggest surprise in these comments is that people seem to have actually successfully used a QR code! I always assumed they were an iPhone only feature, so I ignore them.

I've read that the Android camera app is supposed to recognize QR codes, but it doesn't seem to on my phone.

On Android, you open your camera app and then tap on "Google Lens". This allows you to scan QR codes.

It varies on Android, some manufacturers ship custom camera apps that include automatic QR code detection and decoding. Many people don't even realize the Android they're using is really a highly-customized vendor skin and suite of apps. Samsung in particular does this, and its camera app auto recognizes QR codes.

I have a Pixel bought directly from the Google Store, so I assumed it'd have the most recent features, whatever they are! The Pixel 3a, though, doesn't seem to do anything special with QR codes, besides photographing them.

I believe earlier Android versions did use camera, but now you have to use Google lens. It's extremely well hidden.

On my phone, I have to open up the Google app and click on the icon after the microphone on the search bar to open up Google Lens. Once I am in it, clicking on the three dots icon gives an option to add Lens to home screen.

That's super weird because I have the original Pixel and it has no problem scanning QR codes from the camera app. That's a pretty big QoL downgrade two versions later.

The camera app I have (preinstalled from Moto) can read QR codes. Links are OK, but it can't handle QR payments. You'd expect the phone to forward it to the right app, but no - you need to open that one yourself and use the scanner in there. There's probably a reason for it, maybe all the banks I use do something wrong and Android is capable of this, but at the end of the day, this doesn't matter. QR codes are more often than not frustrating experience for end users, especially those not tech-savvy enough. It's ridiculous, we can do better than this.

Not necessarily. On my android phone the link provided by the QR code shows up in the regular camera app.

Firefox has a QR code scanner - if you tap the URL bar, it has a "scan" button that lets you scan a QR code and use it as a URL. Perhaps Chrome does as well, i d k because I don't use Chrome.

Till I learnt about that, I used a simple QR code scanner from F-Droid (since Playstore is completely untrustworthy for generic utilities).

The text "Google Lens" may not appear even though it is present. My Google Lens button is a cryptic symbol. Modern user interface design seems to give bonus points for being cryptic and obscure because companies are hostile to the idea that they might empower the user - a sense of confusion and uncertainty acts as a form of lockin.

QR codes were invented at Toyota in the 1990s IIRC. They're extremely well-documented and supported.

I've been using that reader for about 10 years, it still works great despite seeing few updates: https://f-droid.org/packages/com.google.zxing.client.android

There may be quicker, prettier or more featureful apps, but this one serves my needs. I use zbarcam on my PC.

I have a Pixel 3a as well. I just point the default camera app at the QR codes and it pops up the relevant link every time.

QR codes pre-date iPhones by many years. App that I used to use on previous Android phones whose camera apps didn't read QR codes: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.google.zxi...

(It's open source so you can take a look at the source and then compile it yourself if you don't trust this page.)

On iPhone Firefox has QR code support - you click on the address bar and tiny QR icon appears on the right. Maybe Firefox on Android does the same?

A.k.a. “mystery meat navigation”.