You might think that in order to read regular QR codes with your phone, you need to download an app, but not: the best application to read these codes is already installed on your phone, it’s the Google Assistant. And it’s so easy and comfortable to use that once you try it, you won’t be using anything else.
Walk into a restaurant, sit at a table and see that instead of the usual prepandemic menu, there is on the tablecloth a QR code with which you can access the list of dishes after pointing with the mobile. Of course, you need something to bridge the QR code, the letter and your stomach: the QR reader. And no, you don’t have to download anything.
Google Lens is your friend
Google Assistant offers a lot of smart options: it can solve your doubts, tell you a joke, tell you where Santa Claus is going and even read what is behind a QR code. For this last task, it uses a service included in the Google application: Lens.
Google Lens is pure magic: its capabilities are so high that you will surely be amazed at how much you can do with your mobile camera and Google servers. Solve math equations, find out what kinds of plants grow on the side of the road, can tell you the specific dish of any restaurant and even translate the texts in front of you in real time. In addition, and if that was not enough, it reads QR codes.
You do not know how to read QR codes on your Android mobile without downloading any apps
- Click on an empty space on your desktop and enter the options for the widget.
- Search for the Google widget and place it on your phone.
- Look at the icon that appears on the far right in the search bar. Click on this colored square that looks like a camera, it’s Google Lens.
- The Camera with Lens app will open. If this is your first time using it, you will need to accept your phone’s camera and storage permissions.
- Click “Search with Camera” to capture the QR code in front of you. If you had saved it on your phone, open the QR from the gallery.
- Once the on-screen viewfinder appears with everything you point with the camera point your mobile at the QR code and click on it.
- Google Lens will offer you all the information that the QR hides. If it is a text, it will put it on the screen; if it is a link, it will allow you to open it directly. Or save a contact, WiFi … It will all depend on what the QR is hiding.
Google Assistant offers you, via Lens, the best QR code reader on Android. There is no advertising, it doesn’t cost you anything, there are no downloads, and the only requirement is that you need an internet connection. As with the rest of the apps, at least as long as a web address is hidden behind the QR code (which is the most common).