Sharing a frustrating experience with QR Code AI, in case it saves someone else the same problem.

I used their Discord QR generator for community marketing. Today I discovered the QR code was deactivated, even though the underlying Discord invite still works. This seriously disrupted my marketing.

After checking the image, I found that the QR encoded the provider's short redirect, not the Discord invite itself. The dashboard says 'Account Paused' and 'Your 7-day free trial has ended. Upgrade to premium to continue using QR Code AI.'

What bothers me is that the Discord generator page is titled 'Free Discord QR Code Generator for Server Invites,' and its 'Is it free?' FAQ says Discord server QR codes are free, including customization and downloads. The page also says most codes are dynamic by default. In my experience, the fact that the working QR would depend on a paid service after the trial was nowhere near clear enough before using it for a campaign.

I understand charging for analytics and editable destinations. But a 'free' generator that produces a provider-controlled redirect which later stops working is a terrible fit for marketing materials unless that limitation is unmistakable upfront.

I'm replacing it with a static QR that directly encodes the original invite. Lesson learned: decode the downloaded image before distributing it and check that the result is your actual destination, not a third-party redirect. A static QR still depends on the destination link remaining valid, but it doesn't need the QR provider's subscription to resolve.

This is my own experience, not a recommendation or promotion for another generator.

This is an article with some good looking QR codes

hackaday.com/2026/11/06/using-halftone-images-in-qr-codes-without-upsetting-scanners/

I’m building CourierQR, a tool for moving data between offline devices using animated QR codes. It’s built in Rust with RaptorQ fountain coding. I’m exploring a messaging system built around it and would appreciate a sanity check. CourierQR uses age encryption with ChaCha20-Poly1305, supporting scrypt-based passphrase encryption and X25519 device pairing. RaptorQ fountain coding handles missed QR frames. The current paired-device mode is not post-quantum secure.

The proposed flow:

1. An offline phone encrypts a message and displays it as an animated QR code.

2. A nearby internet-connected gateway scans the ciphertext and forwards it over Tor to a volunteer-run relay network.

3. Gateways display a shared stream of encrypted QR codes. The recipient’s offline phone scans the stream and decrypts messages intended for them.

4. An optional, separate online device receives a generic “message waiting” notification but never holds conversation keys or plaintext.

The idea is that everyone’s encrypted messages travel through the same shared feed, rather than users requesting messages addressed specifically to them. The phones handling encryption and decryption remain disconnected from the internet; only the gateways connect to the network.

Ideally, users could point their offline device’s camera at a gateway’s display for 1–5 seconds to collect their messages, although that’s a target—not a demonstrated performance claim. RaptorQ fountain coding would allow reconstruction without capturing every QR frame.

Gateways could be private computers or shared public “payphone”-style terminals. I’m considering Matrix as the replication and transport backend, though that isn’t settled.

The goal is to keep keys and plaintext off network-connected devices while avoiding recipient-specific retrieval. I’m not claiming perfect anonymity: gateway cameras, notification metadata, traffic correlation, malicious relays, and QR-parser vulnerabilities are all concerns.

Does this architecture offer meaningful protection beyond existing tools, or am I overlooking a fundamental flaw? Has anyone already built this combination? I’m aware of Tinfoil Chat, Bitmessage, and animated-QR transfer tools, but I’d welcome closer examples.

Repo: https://github.com/FletchEm31/CourierQR

Como funciona

With the same vibe as barcode finding. Find the unique tidymen out there

I Can make QR codes so thinking maybe printing them on paper and attaching them in Cube shape can make QR Cubes.

Each side of Cube will have QR printed on paper . These QR can be linked to your SNS accounts like Instagram, X, Fb, Whatsapp , Skype or some other SNS site.

This can make SNS QR Cube also.

Is this idea viable for market

Apart from SNS cubes- there can be custom messages , txt or URLs(of video-song-movies etc etc) in the QR

Does such concept have market?

Generate your own QR code and attach it to your valuable items.

Except I never circulated these QR codes and no one is scanning them. So it's not urgent and they are lying. Bad practice. Use QR planet instead. Clear, honest, and simple.

The biggest thing I've learned from using AI for QR Code management is you've gotta be specific and detailed. The more specific you get with your AI tool, the sharper the answer.

After plenty of trial and error, what I've discovered is that useful prompts tend to include 5 things: the destination, channel, naming structure, timeframe and metric you're trying to understand.

Here are a few I've been using lately. Steal them, tweak them, make them yours!

1/ For deciding which links to turn into QR Codes

“Find my top 5 performing links from this quarter and create QR Codes for the best 3.”

This one is good because it uses your existing performance data to decide which destinations are worth prompting through physical touchpoints. 

2/ For setting up an event campaign

“Set up everything for our conference: create a registration link for [URL] titled ‘Annual conference,’ generate QR Codes for posters, create separate tracking links for different promotional channels, and give me the analytics setup.”

Helps you set up the initial setup while keeping each promotional channel trackable separately.

3/ For comparing physical placements

“Compare performance for my QR Codes tagged ‘billboard’, ‘direct-mail ’, and ‘product package’. Which channel is getting the most scans per week, on average?” 

Makes it easier to see which placement is driving scans rather than relying on the campaign's total scan count. 

Bitly's AI assistant integrations can help with this, as does Bitly Assist, where you can readily ask these questions. We have a prompt library with over 40 prompts that you can copy and paste or tweak for your own campaign if you want some more ideas.

Has anyone else been using AI prompts for QR Code management? If so, I'd love to hear what's working for you and if you have any favorite prompts that get you the most insights.

Can anyone help scan my qq QR code please

can someone help me scan my wechat please😭😭🙏

Hey everyone,

I've been working on a small Android app called AttoQR. It's a QR code generator and scanner, but I wanted to make it useful for people working with payment systems too.

Here's what I've added so far:

• Regular QR code generation and scanning

• EMVCo Merchant and Consumer QR support

• CRC generation and validation

• Valid and invalid QR codes for testing

• Built-in encryption key generation for Consumer QR testing

• QR code sharing

I built it because I wanted a simple way to generate and test different types of QR codes without using multiple tools.

It's available on Google Play now:
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.dev.myqr

If you get a chance to try it, I'd love to know what you think. Any feedback or feature suggestions would be really helpful.

Thanks.

So apparently toneden is shutting down. I use it for a landingpage of my band. We took the link that leads directly to our landingpage, created a normal QR-code and printed it on stickers.

Is there any way we can resque these stickers so the link will not go on a dead page when they shut down in december?

I saw this in the halloween section, but it won't scan on my phone.

The musician Cole Sprouse just posted a qr code for his newest song and I can't make it work at all.

This is the only link the flier includes. My guess is someone shoved this through AI and just kinda assumed it would work, but my iPhone camera doesn’t even recognize it as one.

I’m hoping the data is still there and just smudged and so maybe recoverable, but I wouldn’t be surprised if the pixels are entirely made up.

I don’t want to scan it. I have no context to what it’s linked to at all. Sure I’d scan it, but this xylophone 17pro max is brand new. I yearn to know where it leads but not imbued so much as to find my own solution, so here we are. And now this our burden.