4 ms·

I don’t know why, but as a consumer I hate QR codes. Maybe because the hype there was? And the little bit of information they provide, like a link. I don’t know

by baxtr 6y ago

I don’t know why, but as a consumer I hate QR codes. Maybe because the hype there was? And the little bit of information they provide, like a link. I don’t know.

wilsonrocks 6y ago
I am similar, as are most people I know, yet it just seems to be the kind of thing that people think is great and that people love
mr_mitm 6y ago
I think it's great for boarding passes, parking tickets, theater admission, etc.
pqb 6y ago
> And the little bit of information they provide, like a link. I don’t know. I share the lack of sentiment to hype and overusing its name and symbol but I cannot agree about the sentence I have quoted about. The QR code comes with titles and URIs, which provides nice way how to share some information with a distinction of their type, i.e. a contact card, OTP passphrase, WiFi credentials (SSID/passphrase pair). Instead of providing a password, which is hard to spell out, we can just share an image and in a moment after scanning we are connected to the WiFi. Been there, works like a charm. We can also use them to share data of multi-MB weight over just an animation combined with generated QRs [0]. [0]: https://github.com/divan/txqr https://github.com/divan/txqr
tinus_hn 6y ago
The hype was a bit too early when the codes were very hard to scan which was a big turn-off. These days they scan instantly and have a lot of useful applications.
calgoo 6y ago
Here in spain a lot of restaurants have posted QR codes on the tables so people can see the menu without touching it. Its been a great help during the pandemic. The experience on the iPhone has been really good. Android.... depends on the phone / os version / app etc. QR is something that should be part of the OS and apps should be able to register apps / protocols so it opens directly.
- carstenhag 6y ago
  Devs can already register their domains' links to be opened in their app (deeplinking into an app, called app links/universal links) :). If the app is not installed, your backend could redirect the user to the app/play store together with the deeplink which will be opened after installation.
pimterry 6y ago
Until recently I would've more or less agreed, they didn't seem to add much. COVID has suddenly made them a big deal here in Spain though. QR codes are everywhere now. Restaurants and bars aren't supposed to pass menus around for hygiene reasons, so those are now all QR codes on every table. Gyms and swimming pools etc now must require reservations for entry to control numbers, so those are all managed with emailed QR codes you scan at the door. You need a completed health form to enter the country, and you have to prove it at the border by scanning a QR code from the form. They've gone right the way from niche gimmick to day-to-day necessity at incredible speed. En route this has improved lots of things too - e.g. quite a few bars & fast food restaurants let you order and pay directly from the menu behind their QR code, and there's far fewer annoying paper forms anywhere. I don't see them going away.
- k__ 6y ago
  Interesting. In Germany everything was either closed or the employees simply desinfected stuff after use.
  - cyxxon 6y ago
    I was in exactly one restaurant indoors during Covid in Germany, and they used lamitated QR codes on the table for an online menu, so it was in use here as well. But generally I agree, yes.
- ultrafez 6y ago
  On the whole, I agree that the adoption of QR codes more widely is a good thing - they are a useful tool to solve a certain class of problems, but in pre-COVID times, they often weren't practical as only a small proportion of people would know how to use one, making it not a viable option to solve the problem. However, one downside of mobile phone ordering is that it has made the ordering process significantly less streamlined. Some restaurants/bars require you to install an app, some are fully web-based (good) but require you to register, but only some of them are web-based, don't ask for more information than is required, and integrate well with fast/easy payment systems (such as Google Pay or Apple Pay).
DecoPerson 6y ago
In my experience they lived up to the hype. Boarding passes have them so you can easily see if your flight is delayed. Restaurants have them so they offer cheaper meals by not printing menus. All venues in Western Australia now MUST have them for the SafeWA app (for contact tracing). Most warehouses I’ve seen, including Australia Post, have them on their articles so workers can quickly scan them (without needing to line up the old linear barcodes or manually enter a code). Many pamphlets handed out at various events have them so you can quickly find them on social media (often via LinkTree). They seem like a success to me!
- rozab 6y ago
  I love how low tech they are. Bluetooth and NFC and all that are cool, but not many of these protocols are compatible with a VT100 or plain old paper.
tobr 6y ago
There’s something foolish about paying for printed media intended to communicate with people, and use it to only communicate with machines. Regular printed text can be understood by humans and machines alike, while QR codes are completely useless for humans. Most QR codes seem to encode URLs, and it wouldn’t exactly be a technical marvel if your smartphone camera was simply able to spot printed URLs and offer to follow the link. There are places where QR codes make sense though, and at least it seems like people have stopped putting QR codes on billboards, advertisements, etc.

by baxtr 6y ago

I don’t know why, but as a consumer I hate QR codes. Maybe because the hype there was? And the little bit of information they provide, like a link. I don’t know.

wilsonrocks 6y ago

I am similar, as are most people I know, yet it just seems to be the kind of thing that people think is great and that people love

mr_mitm 6y ago

I think it's great for boarding passes, parking tickets, theater admission, etc.

pqb 6y ago

> And the little bit of information they provide, like a link. I don’t know. I share the lack of sentiment to hype and overusing its name and symbol but I cannot agree about the sentence I have quoted about. The QR code comes with titles and URIs, which provides nice way how to share some information with a distinction of their type, i.e. a contact card, OTP passphrase, WiFi credentials (SSID/passphrase pair). Instead of providing a password, which is hard to spell out, we can just share an image and in a moment after scanning we are connected to the WiFi. Been there, works like a charm. We can also use them to share data of multi-MB weight over just an animation combined with generated QRs [0]. [0]: https://github.com/divan/txqr https://github.com/divan/txqr

tinus_hn 6y ago

The hype was a bit too early when the codes were very hard to scan which was a big turn-off. These days they scan instantly and have a lot of useful applications.

calgoo 6y ago

Here in spain a lot of restaurants have posted QR codes on the tables so people can see the menu without touching it. Its been a great help during the pandemic. The experience on the iPhone has been really good. Android.... depends on the phone / os version / app etc. QR is something that should be part of the OS and apps should be able to register apps / protocols so it opens directly.

carstenhag 6y ago
Devs can already register their domains' links to be opened in their app (deeplinking into an app, called app links/universal links) :). If the app is not installed, your backend could redirect the user to the app/play store together with the deeplink which will be opened after installation.

pimterry 6y ago

Until recently I would've more or less agreed, they didn't seem to add much. COVID has suddenly made them a big deal here in Spain though. QR codes are everywhere now. Restaurants and bars aren't supposed to pass menus around for hygiene reasons, so those are now all QR codes on every table. Gyms and swimming pools etc now must require reservations for entry to control numbers, so those are all managed with emailed QR codes you scan at the door. You need a completed health form to enter the country, and you have to prove it at the border by scanning a QR code from the form. They've gone right the way from niche gimmick to day-to-day necessity at incredible speed. En route this has improved lots of things too - e.g. quite a few bars & fast food restaurants let you order and pay directly from the menu behind their QR code, and there's far fewer annoying paper forms anywhere. I don't see them going away.

k__ 6y ago
Interesting. In Germany everything was either closed or the employees simply desinfected stuff after use.
- cyxxon 6y ago
  I was in exactly one restaurant indoors during Covid in Germany, and they used lamitated QR codes on the table for an online menu, so it was in use here as well. But generally I agree, yes.
ultrafez 6y ago
On the whole, I agree that the adoption of QR codes more widely is a good thing - they are a useful tool to solve a certain class of problems, but in pre-COVID times, they often weren't practical as only a small proportion of people would know how to use one, making it not a viable option to solve the problem. However, one downside of mobile phone ordering is that it has made the ordering process significantly less streamlined. Some restaurants/bars require you to install an app, some are fully web-based (good) but require you to register, but only some of them are web-based, don't ask for more information than is required, and integrate well with fast/easy payment systems (such as Google Pay or Apple Pay).

DecoPerson 6y ago

In my experience they lived up to the hype. Boarding passes have them so you can easily see if your flight is delayed. Restaurants have them so they offer cheaper meals by not printing menus. All venues in Western Australia now MUST have them for the SafeWA app (for contact tracing). Most warehouses I’ve seen, including Australia Post, have them on their articles so workers can quickly scan them (without needing to line up the old linear barcodes or manually enter a code). Many pamphlets handed out at various events have them so you can quickly find them on social media (often via LinkTree). They seem like a success to me!

rozab 6y ago
I love how low tech they are. Bluetooth and NFC and all that are cool, but not many of these protocols are compatible with a VT100 or plain old paper.

tobr 6y ago

There’s something foolish about paying for printed media intended to communicate with people, and use it to only communicate with machines. Regular printed text can be understood by humans and machines alike, while QR codes are completely useless for humans. Most QR codes seem to encode URLs, and it wouldn’t exactly be a technical marvel if your smartphone camera was simply able to spot printed URLs and offer to follow the link. There are places where QR codes make sense though, and at least it seems like people have stopped putting QR codes on billboards, advertisements, etc.