How to Share WiFi With a QR Code on Samsung

Samsung built WiFi sharing into One UI years ago, and most people never find it because it sits three taps deep in a menu nobody opens. If your phone runs One UI 2.0 or later — roughly any Galaxy from 2020 onwards — you can hand someone your network without reading a password aloud or installing anything.

Here is where it lives, what to do when the option is missing, and the one setting you should change before printing a code.

Sharing the network you are on

1. Open Settings and tap Connections.
2. Tap Wi-Fi, then tap the network you are currently connected to.
3. Tap QR code at the bottom of the panel.

A code appears on screen. Your guest scans it with their camera and joins. There is also a Save as image option, which writes it to your gallery so you can send it to someone who is not in the room — useful for tradespeople arriving later, or family before they travel.

The important limitation: this only works for the network your phone is currently connected to. Samsung will not generate a code for a saved-but-inactive network, and it will not let you create one for a network you have never joined.

Scanning someone else’s code

Open the camera and point it at the code. A notification appears; tap it and confirm.

If the camera does nothing, the QR scanner may be switched off. In the Camera app, open Settings — the cog in the corner — and turn on Scan QR codes. Several carrier-branded Galaxy builds ship with this disabled, which is why the feature seems to work on one Samsung and not another.

There is a second route that works even when the camera setting is off. Swipe down twice to expand 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.

A third option exists on Android 10 and later regardless of what Samsung has done to the camera: Settings → Connections → Wi-Fi → Add network, then tap the QR icon in the network name field. That opens a scanner built specifically for WiFi codes.

When your Samsung does not have the option

Three reasons the QR code button might be missing:

• One UI is too old. Below 2.0 the feature does not exist. Check Settings → About phone → Software information. One UI 2.0 shipped with Android 10 in late 2019.
• You are not connected to that network. Samsung only offers it for the active connection, not for saved ones.
• It is a work profile or managed device. Corporate MDM policies frequently disable credential sharing entirely, and there is no way around that from the device.

In all three cases you can generate the code yourself. Our WiFi QR code generator takes the network name, password and security type and produces exactly the same code Samsung would — it runs in the browser, so the password never leaves the device you type it on.

That approach has a practical advantage over Samsung’s built-in version: you can make a code for a network you are not currently connected to. Useful for printing office signage before the router is installed, or preparing a card for a holiday let you are not standing in.

Finding your password if you have forgotten it

To generate a code manually you need the password. Samsung can show it to you:

1. Settings → Connections → Wi-Fi
2. Tap the cog beside the saved network
3. Tap QR code, then Save as image
4. Scan the saved image with any QR reader — it will display the password as plain text

Slightly roundabout, but it works without root access or a computer. The alternative is the label on the underside of the router, assuming nobody has changed the password since.

Samsung to iPhone, and back

The format is a published standard rather than a Samsung one, so codes work across platforms. A code generated on a Galaxy scans fine on an iPhone, and vice versa.

What does not cross over is Apple’s own password sharing, which uses AirDrop and only works between Apple devices that have each other’s Apple ID in Contacts. That is precisely why a QR code is the more reliable option in a mixed household — it does not care what anyone is holding.

It also means the code you print for guests works for everyone, rather than only for the half of them on the same platform as you.

What you are actually sharing

Samsung’s code contains your password in plain text, exactly like any other WiFi QR code. The encoded string looks like this:

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

Anyone who photographs the screen or the printout has your password. Any QR reader will show them that text rather than joining automatically.

For a guest sitting in your kitchen, that is fine. For a code you are printing and leaving on display, generate it for your router’s guest network instead. Guests get internet; they do not get to see your printer, your NAS, your security cameras or the laptop you do your banking on.

Most routers made in the last decade have a guest network in their settings. Turning it on and generating the code for that network is the single decision that makes a printed WiFi code safe.

Printing it properly

• 3cm minimum across for close scanning. Smaller and phone cameras struggle in anything but bright light.
• Matte, not gloss. Gloss reflects overhead lighting straight into the lens at exactly the angle people hold a phone.
• Keep the white margin. The blank border around a QR code is part of the specification, not decoration.
• Add a line of text. “Scan for WiFi” makes people far more likely to try it.
• Test the printed copy, not the screen version — ink spread and paper texture both affect readability.

Test it with WiFi switched off on a second phone. Testing on a device already connected proves nothing, because it will join regardless using credentials it already has saved.