Every profile, group and channel in Telegram can be shown as a QR code, styled, and saved as an image. Somebody points a camera at it and lands on you.
A QR code is nothing more than a picture of a link, which means the only decision that matters is which link you put inside it. Choose wrong and the poster you printed stops working.
What you will be able to do
- check_circle Produce a QR code for yourself, a group or a channel.
- check_circle Choose between a permanent handle and a revocable invite link.
- check_circle Make one that still scans after it has been printed.
- check_circle Scan somebody else's without leaving Telegram.
The code is generated from whichever link you opened it from, and the colour styles are cosmetic.
qr_code_scanner The code is only the link
Telegram's QR screen is a nicer way of handing over a t.me address. Nothing about the code is private, nothing expires because it is a code rather than a link, and there is no tracking in it beyond whatever the link itself already had.
So the question is which address it holds. A public username points at a name that belongs to the account or the chat for as long as it keeps that name; it is the right choice for anything printed, painted or framed. An invite link points at something you can revoke, limit or expire; it is the right choice for anything temporary, and it is the only option for a private group with no public name.
Revoking an invite link kills every QR code ever made from it, including the ones already on a wall. That is a feature when a code has been photographed and passed around, and an expensive surprise when it is on five hundred flyers.
Four places a QR code ends up
The same picture, four different answers about which link belongs in it.
person_add Swapping contacts in person
storefront A window, a card, a menu
event A slide, a badge, a workshop
photo_camera Pointing a camera at one
Permanent code, permanent link: use the handle. Temporary code, controllable link: use an invite.
settings Making one
- Open the profile, group or channel Your own QR is in your profile settings.
- Tap the QR icon beside the username or the invite link Which one you start from is what ends up encoded.
- Pick a colour style Cosmetic only; keep the contrast high if it is going to be printed.
- Share or save the image Sharing sends it, saving puts it in your photos for showing on a screen.
- Test the real thing On paper, at the distance and lighting where it will live.
This page is the picture of the link. The curriculum step is the link itself: what a public handle commits you to, how it differs from an invite, name squatting, and what happens to every reference to a name when you give it up.
At a glance
- 1QR codes
Make a QR code for yourself, a group or a channel.
- 2Handle or link
A handle lasts; an invite link can be revoked.
- 3Print it well
Add the address in text beside the code.
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