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How Do I Share My Contact Info with a QR Code?

Put a vCard in a QR code, or a link to a contact page with a Save Contact button. Samsung phones can make one from Contacts; any phone camera can scan it.

Nookesh Karri

· 7 min read

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To share your contact info with a QR code, you have two options: put your details straight into the code as a vCard, or put a link in the code that opens a contact page with a Save Contact button. Either way, the other person points their phone camera at the code and saves you to their contacts. If the code is going on anything printed, use the link.

Two kinds of contact QR code

A QR code just holds text. What makes it a “contact” code is the format of that text.

A vCard inside the code. vCard is the file format standard for electronic business cards, the same thing as a .vcf file. When a phone scans a code that contains vCard text, it offers to add a new contact. The spec, RFC 6350, says every vCard starts with BEGIN:VCARD, has a VERSION line and an FN (full name) line, and ends with END:VCARD. Everything else, like phone numbers, email and title, is optional.

There’s also a shorter cousin called MeCard, used by NTT DoCoMo in Japan. Its Wikipedia entry notes that, compared to vCard, it “needs very few chars due to the size limitation of QR Codes.” A MeCard looks like MECARD:N:Doe,John;TEL:13035551212;EMAIL:john.doe@example.com;;, and most phone QR readers handle it. It only holds a few fields.

A link inside the code. Here the code just holds a web address. Scanning it opens a page with your details and a button that downloads a .vcf file into the phone’s Contacts app. The code stays small no matter how much you put on the page, and you can change the page later.

How to make one on your phone

Samsung Galaxy. Samsung has this in the Contacts app. Per Samsung’s support page: tap a contact, tap More (the three vertical dots) at the bottom, then tap QR code. Do that on your own entry and someone can scan the code off your screen. On the other phone, Samsung’s steps are to open Contacts, tap More options, then Scan QR code. They add that “you can also use a QR app to scan the code.”

Other Android phones. It depends on the maker. Google tested a “Create QR Code” option in Google Contacts, found under the three-dot menu while viewing a contact, which 9to5Google reported back in 2017. It wasn’t clear then whether it would ship widely. Check your contact’s menu. If there’s no QR option, use one of the methods below.

iPhone. The Contacts app doesn’t make QR codes, so you need a QR generator or a card service. Reading one is easy: Apple’s QR scanning guide says to open the Camera app or tap the Scan Code button in Control Center, then “hold your device so that the QR code appears, then tap the link to open the content.”

How to make one that works on any phone

  1. Decide what to share. Name, one phone number, one email and your job title cover most cases. Leave your home address out unless you really want strangers to have it.
  2. Pick vCard-in-code or link-in-code. For a code you show on your screen to one person, a vCard is fine. For anything printed, like business cards, name badges, flyers or a booth sign, use a link. I’d pick the link almost every time: printed codes outlive job changes.
  3. Generate the code. Any QR generator that has a “contact” or “vCard” type will build the vCard text for you. For a link, paste your contact page URL into any generator. If you want the page part done for you, QRCard gives you a vanity URL like qrcard.in/c/yourname, a downloadable QR code, and a Save Contact button that hands the phone a vCard file. That’s on the free plan; you can see what’s included on the features page.
  4. Test it on two phones. Scan with an iPhone and an Android phone before you print. Check that the name lands in the right fields and the phone number is tappable.
  5. Print it big enough and with contrast. Dark code, light background, and a quiet margin around it.

If you’re putting the code on a printed card, the guide to adding a QR code to your business card goes through placement and size in more detail.

How much can a contact QR code hold?

More than you should put in it. According to DENSO WAVE, the company behind QR Code (an ISO standard, ISO/IEC 18004), the maximum is 2,953 characters of 8-bit data. That’s for the biggest code with the lowest error correction, which is far denser than anything you’d print on a card.

Error correction makes it tighter. DENSO WAVE’s error correction page says “Level M (15%) is most frequently selected,” meaning the code can restore data even if part of it is smeared or damaged. That redundancy takes space away from your data. A vCard with two addresses, a long note and a photo produces a dense code that cheap cameras struggle with, especially when printed small.

A short URL makes a small, chunky code that scans from across a table.

Common mistakes

  • Putting a photo in the vCard. Photos are the fastest way to blow up the code’s size. Keep the photo on the web page, not in the code.
  • Sharing more than you meant to. A vCard copies every field you exported, so check the address and personal numbers before you generate it. The vCard explainer walks through the file format if you want to check what your code holds.
  • A code you can’t update. A vCard in a code is fixed forever. Change jobs and every printed card is wrong. A link to a page you control fixes this, provided the page stays live.
  • Skipping the iPhone test. iPhones can be fussy about contact files. If the import misbehaves, the post on why a vCard won’t import on iPhone covers the usual causes.

A link-based code depends on the page behind it. If the service shuts down, your account lapses, or the person scanning has no signal, the code leads nowhere. A vCard inside the code works offline. So even if your printed cards use a link, keep a plain vCard code on your lock screen or in your photos for a conference hall with bad reception.

With QRCard, the profile stays visible on the free plan, so a lapsed paid plan doesn’t break the code. It’s still a page on the internet.

What I’d do

Use a link on anything printed and a vCard for face-to-face sharing off your screen. If you hand out cards at events, pair the QR code with a tap-to-share NFC tag so people with either habit can save you in a couple of seconds.

FAQ

Can my iPhone make a QR code of my contact card?

Not from the Contacts app. The iPhone Camera and Code Scanner can read a contact QR code, but to make one you need a QR generator or a digital card service that gives you a code.

A link, if you’ll print the code. A link to a contact page keeps the code small and lets you change your details later. A vCard inside the code works offline but is fixed the moment you print it.

Does the other person need an app to scan it?

No. Apple says the iPhone Camera or Code Scanner reads QR codes, and Samsung says a Galaxy phone can scan from Contacts or any QR app.

Why won’t my contact QR code scan?

Usually it holds too much data. Long addresses, notes and embedded photos make the code dense, and small printed codes with many modules are hard to read. Trim the fields or switch to a link.

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