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QR Codes

SoCal80s

SoCal80s

Oct 1, 2015
1,164
2,242
Southern California
#1
I'm looking to make a QR code to post around the venue during our gigs directing people to our social media. There are many sites out there that can generate one, but I'm hoping someone can point me to somewhere the meets these requirements:

1. Takes me directly to where I want to go - not a landing page, and not their site first (so they can spy) and then redirects you
2. Will open our page in the app, not in a web browser (need Facebook and Instagram done)
3. Free

Am I hoping for too much?
 
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#2
A QR code is just a graphic URL.
I just use my email client to generate them. make a url you like, right-click on it, select 'generate qr' and ta da.
donno what you mean by 'open our page in the app.' what 'the app.'
if the url you can create will do what you want, the qr will do what you want.
that may depend on whatever default action the person clicking has set for links. mine just goes to the browser, because - what else would it do ?

FB will create QR's for fB images, but of course those are on fb's content delivery service servers.

if you want to make -a- qr, i'd be glad to do it for you.
if you want the facility to do it a lot of times, someone else will have to suggest a service or tool.
good luck !
 
#3
Are you looking for a free generator or commercial? Most likely all your requirements are covered by a commercial one. URL genius may be an example. You need to check the privacy policy tho. Can't vouch for that.

What should the qr make the device do when the app is not installed? Open in browser? Can you achieve what you want in that case?

Or you try configurating/scripting one yourself. Stackoverflow can be helpful in that case. Can be a pita tho.
 
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#4
ArtechnikA said:
if the url you can create will do what you want, the qr will do what you want.
Click to expand...

Good point!

So what I want is for the person to open the QR for our facebook page and it opens our page in their facebook app. But, if they don't have the app then it should take them to our facebook page in their browser.

I think opening in the app is the part that is complicating things. But if you just use the facebook url (facebook.com/bandpage) it tries to open in my browser and asks me to login to facebook. I am not logged in to facebook in the browser because I use the facebook app, and I imagine most people have the same situation, maybe?
 
#7
SoCal80s said:
Found it! If you go to your band's Facebook page and go into the settings and scroll down a ways, there is a QR code you can download that does just what I wanted.
Click to expand...
I'm glad you found it. but when i tried to do that i found nothing that looked like Settings or QR codes. is this on the desktop, or in the app? i don't do apps...
 
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#8
ArtechnikA said:
I'm glad you found it. but when i tried to do that i found nothing that looked like Settings or QR codes. is this on the desktop, or in the app? i don't do apps...
Click to expand...
Desktop. For Facebook, make sure you've setup a "page" like a business does (not an "account" like a person does), and you probably have to be an administrator.
-go to your band's "page"
-On the left, where it says "Manage Page", scroll all the way down and click on "settings"
-Again on the left, click on "Page info"
-Scroll down on the main window, almost to the bottom and you'll see a QR code
-Click on the code. That will open up a big image of the QR code that you can download (by right-clicking on it)
 
#9
SoCal80s said:
I'm looking to make a QR code to post around the venue during our gigs directing people to our social media. There are many sites out there that can generate one, but I'm hoping someone can point me to somewhere the meets these requirements:

1. Takes me directly to where I want to go - not a landing page, and not their site first (so they can spy) and then redirects you
2. Will open our page in the app, not in a web browser (need Facebook and Instagram done)
3. Free

Am I hoping for too much?
Click to expand...

1. Google for "qr code generator". You'll see more options than you can count. Enter your target URL and test it. One or another of them will work without strings attached.

2. You can't control what opens a URL, it's a function of how a user's phone is set up. If a user has the Facebook (or Instagram or etc.) app installed, a URL will open in the app. If the user does not have the app installed, or has configured their phone to prioritize a web browser over the app for Facebook (or Insta, or etc.) URLs, it will open in a browser. This is good because it means you can still reach people who don't use Facebook or refuse to install the app or have other reasons for not using their phones the way you do.

3. See 1.
 
#10
The first website I tried was Invalid Link Removed. It created this image:
frame.png

The site offers various upsells but the basic plain QR code it made for free works fine and links directly to my previous comment in this thread.
 
#12
SoCal80s said:
Desktop. For Facebook, make sure you've setup a "page" like a business does (not an "account" like a person does), and you probably have to be an administrator.
-go to your band's "page"
-On the left, where it says "Manage Page", scroll all the way down and click on "settings"
-Again on the left, click on "Page info"
-Scroll down on the main window, almost to the bottom and you'll see a QR code
-Click on the code. That will open up a big image of the QR code that you can download (by right-clicking on it)
Click to expand...
Thanks. It was buried deeper into 'Page Info' than I had been looking...
 
#14
George Dennis said:
For interest - a QR code isn't limited to just providing URL strings but can also embed free text that the code reader deciphers (eg in place of signs)
Click to expand...
My tablet just told me 'there is nothing installed that can read that...'
this whole QR thing just carries the security risk concept to another level, just as url-shorteners before them
i won't click on a 'bitly' contracted url because i have no idea where it's going to go, really.
 
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#15
ArtechnikA said:
My tablet just told me 'there is nothing installed that can read that...'
this whole QR thing just carries the security risk concept to another level, just as url-shorteners before them
i won't click on a 'bitly' contracted url because i have no idea where it's going to go, really.
Click to expand...
The iOS Phone app will display the content of the QR code and if it's an URL will ask if you want to visit the site. Which is an excellent approach, IMO. I agree that I won't blindly follow an URL in a QR code otherwise.

In the time before bit.ly, we used TinyURL which worked the same way but allowed you to configure your browser (via a cookie, because it was the olden times) to take you to a TinyURL interstitial page that displayed the target URL, rather than redirect you straight to the target URL. bit.ly doesn't offer exactly that, but does have something similar: Add a plus sign (+) to the end of a bit.ly URL and it will take you to a bit.ly interstitial page displaying the target URL. Here's an example: Bitly. The power of the link. *-- with the plus sign you'll get the interstitial page; delete the plus sign and you'll go straight to the target (my first comment in this thread).

*(I'm trying to show the raw URL here but unfortunately the site auto-inserts the title of the target page for any visible URLs. bleh.)
 
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#16
ArtechnikA said:
My tablet just told me 'there is nothing installed that can read that...'
this whole QR thing just carries the security risk concept to another level, just as url-shorteners before them
i won't click on a 'bitly' contracted url because i have no idea where it's going to go, really.
Click to expand...
I did test the code with an iphone camera before posting - which offered to search the web with Safari using the full text string. It's really more about what app you have and how it associates QR code data - not the QR itself per ce.
Good to know, though.
 
#18
bit.ly is probably the leading link shortener, and they just bought the leading QR code generator qr-code-generator.com. I've used both freely for years for work, band, and personal use with great results.

Cybersecurity is always a concern with shortened links and QR codes. Most QR scanner apps provide a destination link and a preview of the destination site you can review before proceeding. If you want to preview the destination link of a bit.ly URL, just add a plus sign to the end of their shortened link. A preview page displays on the bitly.com site with information about the shortened link. Bitly checks its shortened links for malware using data from independent sources.
 
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#19
You can create it using your iphone and the google chrome app.

open your band facebook/instagram page, in the bar address tape share, is the arrow pointing up, select: create QR code, save the image, done.
took me less than a minute to create the code for this thread.


F9B418BE-59A4-4736-9000-9CA5D69F767D.jpeg
 
#20
SoCal80s said:
Good point!

So what I want is for the person to open the QR for our facebook page and it opens our page in their facebook app. But, if they don't have the app then it should take them to our facebook page in their browser.

I think opening in the app is the part that is complicating things. But if you just use the facebook url (facebook.com/bandpage) it tries to open in my browser and asks me to login to facebook. I am not logged in to facebook in the browser because I use the facebook app, and I imagine most people have the same situation, maybe?
Click to expand...

Your talking about some things that have nothing to do with the QR code. What happens after the code is scanned is dependent on how the device decides to handle it.
 

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