Someone hands you a card with a square on it and says “just scan that for the WiFi.” Then your camera does nothing, and you end up typing a nineteen-character password off a router label anyway.
Scanning a WiFi QR code is built into every current phone, but the feature is in a different place on each one, and several manufacturers ship it switched off. Here is where it lives.
iPhone
Open the Camera app and point it at the code. A banner slides down from the top: Join “NetworkName” Network. Tap it and you are connected.
Nothing happening? Check Settings → Camera and make sure Scan QR Codes is on. It is enabled by default but gets turned off during setup more often than you would think.
There is also a dedicated Code Scanner in Control Centre, which you add via Settings → Control Centre. It is more reliable in dim light than the camera, because it is not trying to meter and focus for a photograph at the same time.
Works on any iPhone running iOS 11 or later.
Samsung Galaxy
Point the Camera app at the code and tap the notification.
If the camera ignores it, open the Camera app, tap the cog, and enable Scan QR codes. Several carrier-branded Galaxy builds ship with this off.
There is a second route that works even when the camera setting is disabled: swipe down twice to open the full quick-settings panel and look for the QR scanner tile. If it is not visible, tap the pencil icon and drag it in from the hidden tiles.
Google Pixel and stock Android
The camera reads QR codes natively. On Pixel there is also a QR tile in quick settings.
Android has a second path most people miss, and it is the one that works when everything else fails:
- Settings → Network & internet → Internet
- Tap Add network
- Tap the QR icon in the field next to the network name
This opens a scanner built specifically for WiFi codes. It is available on Android 10 and later regardless of what the camera app does.
Huawei and Honor
On devices without Google Mobile Services, the camera still scans but the handling differs. The most reliable route is Settings → Wi-Fi, then the QR icon at the top right of the network list.
Huawei’s HiVision — the icon in the camera viewfinder — also decodes QR codes, and on some EMUI versions it handles WiFi codes when the plain camera does not.
If neither works, the phone may be running an older EMUI without WiFi QR support. In that case any general QR reader will decode and display the text, and you can read the password out of it manually — see the format below.
Windows and Mac
Neither desktop operating system can join a network from a QR code. There is no built-in support on either.
Scan it with a phone to read the password, then type it into the laptop. Slightly circular, but it is the only route.
Reading the password out of a code manually
Any QR reader will show you the raw text, which looks like this:
WIFI:T:WPA;S:CoffeeHouseGuest;P:flatwhite2024;H:false;;S: is the network name. P: is the password. Everything between those markers and the next semicolon is the value.
This is worth knowing for two reasons. It gets you online when automatic joining fails, and it is a useful reminder that a WiFi QR code is your password written in plain text — anyone who photographs it has it.
When the scan will not work
- Nothing is detected. Move to about 15–20cm and hold steady. Codes under 3cm across need close range, particularly in low light.
- Glare on the code. Printed on glossy paper under a ceiling light, the reflection defeats the camera. Change your angle rather than adding light.
- It reads but asks for a password. The code itself is wrong — usually a typo in the network name or the wrong security type when it was generated.
- It joins but there is no internet. The code worked correctly. The problem is the network.
- Screen brightness. Scanning a code off another phone’s display often fails at low brightness. Turn the displaying phone up.
Making your own
If you are the one being asked for the password repeatedly, generate a code once and print it. Our WiFi QR code generator builds it in your browser, so the password is never transmitted to a server.
One piece of advice worth following: generate it for your router’s guest network, not your main one. A printed code on a fridge or a café table is a password on public display, and the guest network keeps visitors away from your printer, your NAS and everything else on the main network.
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