W3C

– DRAFT –
QR Codes as first class citizens of the Web

12 November 2025

Attendees

Present
phila, plh, TabAtkins, Vasilii Trofimchuk
Regrets
-
Chair
phila
Scribe
ewooton

Meeting minutes

Zoom is not connected

@phila leading and introducing himself as working in barcodes

comparison of embedded URL with different visual features - how about adding a QR code - intuitively doesn't make sense, but perhaps semi-secure QR relates to NFC tag - leading to a one time cryptographic key

asking why people are here

answer: from web payments group - may be more a secure way to use "x" (maybe QR) to go from device to device to complete transaction

also: is anyone working on putting QR codes on the web - chain of conversations leads to this session

may be other ways to hand off to another app except QR - but what are they - and is QR viable

<TabAtkins> https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/API/Barcode_Detection_API#browser_compatibility

<TabAtkins> ^^^ API for recognizing a qr code out of an image

potential for web apps to do this - suggestion that there is a way to detect QR and pass it automatically - from image or video stream - no one knows what it's called but certain it exists

Nick from 1password and group - if need to tokenize from QR - and give different options for intent of app / link goes elsewhere rather than browser / OS is complicit to make things seamless

invite user to take action - give them an element - is it better as QR than a link

<TabAtkins> https://tabatkins.github.io/specs/qrcode/#format

two functions - replace link with QR - or create new image format that makes image from link

javascript API can recognize a variety of barcodes

may be solved already - CSS

are there other use cases?

in addition to web payments

yes - verifiable credentials

generally assume when using QR that the user action is pretty limited

add - barcode as a way to bridge an airgap

and also - un-airgap it - save it for later

<TabAtkins> a.qrcode { content: qrcode(...params..., href); }

ACTION: is changing a link to a barcode - not extracting a link from barcode

"pay with google maps" - as a demo proxy for how method being discussed would work - click link on device to open maps - or scan QR with mobile and maps opens on mobile

<vasilii_> TabAtkins, what is the css function for qr code?

<TabAtkins> @vasilii_ doesn't exist yet, but I imagine it'll look like `a.qrcode { content: qrcode(...params..., href); }`

<TabAtkins> (that's for replacing the contents of an <a> with a qrcode for its link)

<TabAtkins> (I'll just need to talk with someone with expertise in the area to figure out exactly what params need to be offered.)

<vasilii_> Ack, got it. Thanks!

what happens with text that isn't a URL? discussion follows - we don't know

we are finding differences between whether long press directs to the URL in a QR code - safari does it

be good to have an easy way to generate QR from link - less complicated than at present

maybe: selector for what to do with QR code info v pre-selected

Thanks!

Summary of action items

  1. is changing a link to a barcode - not extracting a link from barcode
Minutes manually created (not a transcript), formatted by scribe.perl version 248 (Mon Oct 27 20:04:16 2025 UTC).

Diagnostics

Maybe present: also, answer, maybe

All speakers: also, answer, maybe

Active on IRC: breakout-bot, ewooton, phila, plh, TabAtkins, vasilii, vasilii_