19 points by obilgic 12 hours ago | 10 comments
- iOS Safari has a special "QR" menu if you long-tap a QR code.
And this is built in to Android OS: "Search your screen" or "Circle to Search."[1]
- Wow it even lets you copy the URL! (This is a gripe I've always had with Lens - it can read QR codes but doesn't let you copy the URL, so if you got redirected there's no easy way to get the original link.)
- The HTML file that has them does not make it a link, I suppose.
A browser extension perhaps could add a command to decode a QR code (and possibly other barcodes), or an external program could do so from a screen capture or file or camera or any other video source (allowing it to work independently of the web browser).
- If they were then you'd have to do one of two things: 1) ocr all images to check if they are QR codes 2) embed metadata saying that this image is a QR code and a link. If you were betting on the metadata then why not just create a link directly...
- i think using embeded metadata would be the way to go, but we would somehow need to inform every dev in the world to do so
- I would hope the developer would add a link the user could simply click, instead of needing to translate a QR code to get the link.
The assumptions made around a lot of QR codes don’t make much sense to me.
- I guess it is mostly because of the reason that QR codes are not always a URL! It might be something related to a payment or a wifi conf. Plus I don't think that browsers scanning every image for QR codes by default would be very great for it's efficiency and overall user privacy. But I think it could always be a good option to have especially for QR codes which are link. You can always use a extention though! :)
- It's a good idea. Obviously you can't preemptively OCR all images but having "context menu -> follow link" which works on QR codes and images with links in them seems totally doable do me
- I think that a separate program might be better, which could be used with any video source in any program, including a QR code made up from multiple pictures or from CSS, or a video, etc. Furthermore, it is not necessarily a URL.
However, it might also be made as a browser extension in case you do not want to use a separate program, or if you want to be able to follow such links directly without going through another program.
- sometimes youtube videos show QR codes somewhere on the screen now, and it sure would be nice to be able to easily click on those.