Practical ways to use a QR code

A QR code is really just a compact, camera-readable way of storing a short piece of text. What makes it useful isn't the code itself — it's what that text says, and whether the app scanning it knows how to interpret it. A URL is the obvious case, but a handful of other formats are just as widely supported and open up uses most people never try.

What a QR code can actually encode

Any QR code stores plain text — up to a few thousand characters, though most generators cap input well below that so the resulting pattern stays easy to scan. Most phone cameras handle two cases automatically: a plain URL (which offers to open it as a link) and plain text (which just displays it). Beyond that, a handful of text formats are standardised widely enough that contact and Wi-Fi apps recognise them too, covered below.

Everyday uses for a QR code

The common thread: a QR code is a delivery mechanism, not a destination. For anything that needs to stay up to date — a menu that changes, a product page that moves — encoding a URL you control is almost always the right call, since you can update what that URL points to without ever reprinting the code. Reserve encoding the actual content (a Wi-Fi password, a phone number) for things that genuinely won't change.

The exact format for a Wi-Fi QR code

Most phone camera apps recognise this standardised string and offer to join the network directly, without typing anything:

WIFI:T:WPA;S:YourNetworkName;P:YourPassword;;

Swap in the real network name and password, keeping the punctuation exactly as shown. T:WPA covers WPA/WPA2 (the vast majority of home networks) — use T:WEP for an older WEP network, or T:nopass and omit the P: field entirely for an open network with no password. Paste the finished string into a QR generator's text box, the same as you would a URL.

The exact format for a contact-card (vCard) QR code

A vCard is the standard format contact apps use to import a person's details in one go. A minimal version looks like this:

BEGIN:VCARD
VERSION:3.0
N:Sherratt;James;;;
FN:James Sherratt
TEL:+441234567890
EMAIL:name@example.com
URL:https://example.com
END:VCARD

Not every scanning app recognises a vCard automatically the way it does a plain URL — support varies more than it does for Wi-Fi strings. Where that matters, a simple alternative is a QR code that just encodes a URL to an online contact page or digital business card, which works identically on every device.

Do QR codes expire, or need to work forever?

A QR code generated from plain text, a URL or a formatted string doesn't expire or change on its own — it will scan to exactly the same result for as long as the code exists. What can go stale is what it points to: a URL only keeps working if the page at that address still exists. Some paid "dynamic QR" services get around this by adding a redirect layer you can repoint later, but the same effect is available for free with any URL shortener or a page you control yourself — the QR code format itself has no concept of expiry.

How to make one

Altto's QR Code Generator takes any text or URL — including a formatted Wi-Fi or vCard string — and turns it into a downloadable QR code entirely in your browser, with nothing ever uploaded to a server.

1. Type or paste your text, URL, or formatted string (Wi-Fi, vCard) into the box.
2. Choose a size and error-correction level — higher error correction keeps the code scannable even if it gets partly obscured, at the cost of a denser pattern.
3. Download the finished code as an image, ready to print or share.

Common questions