How to Generate QR Code for a Web Page in Chrome?

Transferring or sharing content between two different platforms has always been challenging for end-users, especially if they aren’t part of the Apple ecosystem.

To give you a perfect example of the same, recently, I came across an interesting piece of content while browsing the web on my PC. I thought of transferring this content onto my mobile, and many options popped out in my mind.

These included sharing that content’s link via WhatsApp Web, mailing it to myself, or adding it to the Bookmarks tab (using Chrome’s sync feature).

While they seem to be viable approaches, they weren’t among the most feasible ones as they required quite a few efforts. Then I decided to recheck Chrome’s experimental QR Code Scanner functionality, and it turned out it was finally live in the stable build.

So what exactly is this feature? As is evident from its name, you could easily create a QR Code for any website you visit via the Chrome browser. Once created, pick up your device, scan the code, and it shall directly take you to that site. Furthermore, you could also save this QR Code locally and scan it as and when required.

Earlier, this feature was part of the browser’s experimental section chrome://flags/#sharing-qr-code-generator, but now it has made its way over to the stable build, both for the web and the mobile variant of Chrome.

So with that in mind, let’s check out sharing QR code from the chrome browser and its usage instructions —

Generate QR Code on Chrome Computer

Thankfully, we do not have to install a chrome extension to generate the sharing QR code in chrome. But, make sure that chrome is updated to the latest version for this feature to display.

Here are the required steps to generate a QR Code on Chrome Computer:

1. Launch the Chrome browser on your PC and open the desired site.
2. Click on the Share option in the URL bar.
   
3. Select the QR Code option menu.
   It will also display the URL of that page just beneath the QR Code.
4. Hit on the Download button.
   

The QR Code will be saved to the Downloads folder as an Image file having the PNG extension. The name of that file will be qrcode_websiteurl.png.

Alternatively, you can also right-click on the context menu’s web page and select the option Create QR code for this page option.

Generate QR Code on Chrome Android

Like its PC build, you could also create a QR code for any site directly from your android device. You can share this generated QR code using any social or communication app.

Here are the steps to generate a QR code on Chrome Android:

1. Open the Chrome app on your device.
2. Tap on the More icon situated at the top right.
3. Select Share from the drop-down menu.
4. Choose the QR Code option from the share sheet.
   It will generate and bring up the QR code associated with that URL.
5. Hit the Download button.
   

The QR code file will be saved as a PNG image in the Downloads folder. It will be named chrome_qrcode_number.png.

Generate QR Code on Chrome iOS

Chrome for iOS does offer the sharing QR code generator just like chrome android. We can select the Generate QR code menu to allow sharing.

Here are the steps to generate and share QR codes on Chrome iPhone or iPad:

1. Launch the Google Chrome app on iOS.
2. Open a website to generate and share a QR code.
3. Tap on the for sharing options.
4. Select the Create a QR code option menu from the list.
   It will generate a QR code for the website page.
5. Hit on the Share… button to share the QR code.
   

The generated QR code can be shared externally using any app and communication medium.

Scan Chrome QR Codes

There are a plethora of third-party apps as well as sites that you could try out to scan these codes. Talking about their usage instructions, you need to open that app/site, give it the required camera permissions, and point your device’s camera to that QR Code.

The scanning shall take a couple of seconds, and the code’s embedded URL will be right in front of you. Just tap on it, and it will take you to that website.

However, if you don’t wish to take the help of any app or site, then there’s another way out. You could directly scan the QR code from the Chrome browser itself.

Here are the steps to scan and open Chrome QR Codes:

1. Launch the Chrome browser, and open any random site of your choice.
2. Tap on for options menu list.
3. Select the Share menu followed by the QR Code option.
4. Switch the tab from Share to Scan from the top menu bar.
5. Allow the Camera permissions and scan the QR code.
   

While this method calls for a few additional steps, it’s a much more secure one. This is because it isn’t generally advised to allow unknown third-party apps and sites to access your device’s camera. On the other hand, Chrome’s in-built scanner still stands as a much more secure alternative.

Disable Generate QR Code in Chrome

UPDATE: this flag has been removed from the Chrome Flags; no longer available. The QR code generator is now integrated into the browser.

If you do not want the Generate QR Code icon or the feature to appear in Chrome, you can disable the feature using the Chrome Flag. Visit the below page on your Chrome browser and set the status to Disabled.

chrome://flags/#sharing-qr-code-generator

Unfortunately, there is no option within the Chrome Settings page to toggle or switch off the QR Code generator feature. You can only rely on the chrome flag to remove Generate QR code from Chrome.

Bottom Line: Chrome QR Code for Page

On that note, we conclude the guide on using the new Generate QR Code feature in the Chrome browser. The lack of an inbuilt option to share URLs across devices always seemed a major missing piece of the otherwise perfect puzzle. And now that it has been put in place, Google seems to have check-marked another valuable feature of the priority list.

Creating the code via PC and then scanning it via mobile was relatively easy to execute, but the same isn’t true when switching roles. It is because it gets pretty challenging to perfectly align the laptop’s webcam so that it can scan the QR Code displayed on the smartphone.

What are your views on the same? Are you considering giving this new addition to the browser a try? Or do you have some other methods already lined up your sleeves?