QR sharing guide

How to share a digital business card with a QR code

To share a digital business card with a QR code, display the code and ask the other person to scan it with their phone’s camera or QR scanner. They open the link and choose whether to save the contact. A web-based card does not require a recipient app, but opening the page is not the same as saving a contact.

Written by Wacky Works Digital · Published 22 September 2026

Company Share Deck’s current preview demonstrates that handover without a recipient account. Use made-up information for any return exchange: this is not a service for collecting real contacts yet.

Choose the destination before showing the code

Decide what the other person needs first. A person’s contact card is useful when the next step is getting in touch with that person. A company introduction is useful when the conversation concerns the organisation and its work.

In the Company Share Deck preview, the individual QR leads with a person’s card and the company QR leads with the company story. These are prepared examples, not a public card-creation tool. For the full navigation instructions, read how to use Company Share Deck.

Make the handover easy to check

Open the intended QR and keep the whole square visible.
Leave its clear border unobstructed. DENSO WAVE’s QR guidance specifies a four-module margin on every side. A module is one small square in the code; this is not a universal print size in millimetres.
Hold the sharing screen steady. If glare makes it hard to see, adjust the angle or brightness and try again.
Let the recipient scan with their own phone, inspect the link and open it. Apple’s current instructions use the Camera app or Code Scanner, followed by tapping the displayed link. Other phones may present different controls.
Wait for the page itself to load. A camera recognising the code does not establish that its destination is accessible.

Rehearse this with a second phone before an event. Check the page while signed out of any account that might otherwise grant access.

What if it does not work?

The camera does not recognise a code: Show the complete code and border; adjust glare and distance gradually; hold steady.
A link appears, but the page does not load: Check the receiving phone’s internet connection and whether the destination opens from its normal link.
The wrong page opens: Check that the selected QR is the one you intended to share.
The page opens, but no contact appears in the address book: Look for the contact-save action and confirm any import requested by the contacts app.

If scanning remains awkward, share or copy the same link through an agreed channel. Opening a web destination still needs connectivity; a different sharing method does not make the page work offline.

Opening, bookmarking and saving are different

Opening the link displays a webpage. Bookmarking it keeps a route back to that page. Neither action automatically adds someone to the phone’s contacts.

Where Save to My Contacts prepares a VCF contact file, the recipient must complete the import their device offers. A downloaded file alone is not proof that the contact has been saved. Check the contacts app if that is the intended outcome. The contact-saving explanation covers this distinction in the preview.

Practise with fictional details

Use a made-up name on Send details back. Email, phone number, company and title are optional; any details entered must also be fictional. The test exchange returns to the original sharing device.

A permanent hosted editor, public accounts, cross-device saving, AI enrichment and a company inbox are not available. The AI and company-wide checkboxes record inactive preferences only.

Start with the two-phone preview checklist. For future access, register interest; that separate form does not create an account or unlock editing.

Use fictional contact details only.

Try the fictional-data preview