WiFi QR Codes, vCards, and Other Useful QR Formats

Most QR codes in the wild encode a URL. That's a waste. The QR code symbology defined in ISO/IEC 18004 doesn't care about the payload — it's just bytes — and over the years a handful of plain-text conventions have emerged that let a scanner do something useful without opening a browser. Here are the formats worth knowing.

WiFi Credentials

The single most useful non-URL QR format. Originally introduced by Java ME phones and later adopted by Android and iOS, the WiFi format encodes an SSID, password, and authentication type as a single string:

WIFI:T:WPA;S:MyNetwork;P:hunter2;H:false;;

T is the auth type (WPA, WEP, or nopass). S is the SSID. P is the password. H:true marks the network as hidden. Special characters in the SSID or password — semicolons, commas, backslashes, double quotes — must be escaped with a backslash.

Print one and stick it on the fridge. Guests scan, tap "Join," and they're online. No typing a 16-character WPA2 passphrase off a router label.

Contact Cards (vCard and MeCard)

Two competing formats here. vCard (RFC 2426, RFC 6350) is the heavyweight standard used by every contacts app on every platform. MeCardis a Japanese mobile-era shorthand that's smaller — useful when you want the QR code to stay scannable at small sizes.

A minimal vCard payload:

BEGIN:VCARD
VERSION:3.0
FN:Jane Doe
ORG:Acme Corp
TEL:+15551234567
EMAIL:[email protected]
URL:https://acme.example
END:VCARD

MeCard for the same person fits in roughly half the bytes:

MECARD:N:Doe,Jane;ORG:Acme Corp;TEL:+15551234567;EMAIL:[email protected];URL:https://acme.example;;

Use vCard for business cards and conferences where compatibility matters more than density. Use MeCard if you're embedding a contact on a printed item with limited space.

Calendar Events

The iCalendar format (RFC 5545) drops straight into a QR code. Most modern phones recognise it and offer to add the event:

BEGIN:VEVENT
SUMMARY:Conference Talk
DTSTART:20260615T140000Z
DTEND:20260615T150000Z
LOCATION:Hall B
END:VEVENT

Times are in UTC when suffixed with Z. Without the Z, they're interpreted in the device's local time zone — which is almost never what you want for a public event.

Geo Coordinates

RFC 5870 defines the geo: URI scheme. iOS and Android both honour it — scanning opens the default maps app at the coordinates:

geo:37.7749,-122.4194

Useful on physical signage — trailheads, event venues, real estate listings. Avoid the proprietary https://maps.google.com/... form unless you specifically want to force one map provider.

Email, SMS, and Phone

Less exciting but still occasionally useful, all built on standard URI schemes:

• mailto: mailto:[email protected]?subject=Hello&body=Message — pre-fills the compose screen.
• sms: sms:+15551234567?body=Hi — opens the messaging app with a draft.
• tel: tel:+15551234567 — initiates a call (with confirmation).

Plain Text

A QR code can hold up to about 4,296 alphanumeric characters or 2,953 bytes. If the payload doesn't match any known format, scanners fall back to displaying it as text. Useful for short notes, serial numbers, or self-contained data that doesn't need a server round trip.

What Doesn't Work

There's no standard QR format for "run this app," "pair this Bluetooth device" (outside of vendor-specific schemes), or "authenticate this user." Every attempt at universal QR-based auth has fragmented along platform lines. If you see a payment QR code, it's almost always a URL pointing at the payment provider — the QR is a transport, not a protocol.

Pick the format that does the most work for the scanner. A WiFi QR code saves your guests two minutes of squinting at a router. A vCard saves a manual contact entry. URLs have their place, but they're rarely the most useful payload.