Many questions regarding QR are from years ago. My question is, will a single QR handle 2 functions.
What I'm trying to achieve is. A QR which allows user to connect to my Wi-Fi (Hotspot) AND open a desired website. NOT A CAPTIVE PORTAL.
2 Answers
While usages of QR codes can be very versatile, there are only a few universally standard formats for a QR code, including WiFi and URL, but not as a combination.
For example, the common format for WiFi QR code is: WIFI:S:<SSID>;T:<WEP|WPA|blank>;P:<PASSWORD>;H:<true|false|blank>;;. Scanning it using a camera/QR code scanner app may trigger an intent to connect to that WiFi. On the other hand, scanning a QR code with a URL format, such as https://example.com may open the link in a browser automatically.
However, combining both of them does not mean that it will work for both. On the contrary, it may only recognize the first part or even break for both since it is not one of the recognized formats anymore. E.g. scanning a QR code for WIFI:S:MySSID;T:WPA;P:MyPassW0rd;;https://example.com on Google Pixel 3a, Android 12 with Google Camera app, ZXing Teams's Barcode Scanner app, and WiFi Setting's built-in scanner only lets the user connect to the "MySSID" access point without opening the URL.
For such non-standard formats, the user also needs a custom app that can handle multiple formats simultaneously in a single QR code.
answered Oct 28, 2022 at 15:06
Regular QR codes are usually able to support either WiFi connection or URL opening, putting the two together is really quite hard due to QR code format limitations. I think that dynamic QR codes may help you solve the issues as they allow for more advanced functions. You can create a QR code for logging users into your Wi-Fi first and then be transferred to the desired URL. This might be exactly what you need, although it involves using a custom handler with an additional step. I used https://viralqr.com/ for dynamic codes, but I still think it would be better to create two different QR codes to make it work for sure.
