… I think partly this is that Android has lacked a decent QR code scanner (out of the box) for far too long. The hardware has been there forever … but you're forced to choose an app, and thus you have to have the nose to be able to suss crapware from not.
Google Goggles grew the functionality years ago, but even recently it will still deliver Artificial Idiocy level results: I scanned a QR code this year (I think it was?) and the AI thought about it and … told me it was a QR code. "Here are image results from the web of other QR codes!" sigh
So I have a dedicated app for this.
The camera app has grown built in support for them, but the UI is hot garbage. I'm not at all sure how one is supposed to discover it; there's no button for it, no label, nothing to really indicate it. You just point it at a QR code, but it's then pretty terrible at recognizing them, so even if you're doing everything right … you might just get nothing, with no feedback.
So I still have a QR scanner app, as it is far easier to work and more reliable at scanning than the camera app is…
Nobody (iPhone or Android) had QR code scanning built in for ages, which is why QR codes crashed and burned very rapidly like 10-13 years ago before having their random resurgence in the last few years because it was finally feasible with the built in camera/app
I still don't think (in Android; I can't speak for iOS) the built-in app is viable. It only detects in insanely optimal conditions, and non-optimal scans produce no errors or diagnostics to the user: you can very likely be doing everything correct, be aiming the camera in such a manner that there is adequate lighting & pixels to scan a QR code, and get bumpkiss — and further, you'd have no idea the feature even exists … whereas a dedicated app will scan it instantly with the same image, and if you don't get it, you know that the app is capable of it and you probably just need to move closer. (Also, the app I have has a decent viewfinder showing you how much it needs, and it shows visible feedback about what it is finding, even if it can't make a full match.)
Google Goggles grew the functionality years ago, but even recently it will still deliver Artificial Idiocy level results: I scanned a QR code this year (I think it was?) and the AI thought about it and … told me it was a QR code. "Here are image results from the web of other QR codes!" sigh
So I have a dedicated app for this.
The camera app has grown built in support for them, but the UI is hot garbage. I'm not at all sure how one is supposed to discover it; there's no button for it, no label, nothing to really indicate it. You just point it at a QR code, but it's then pretty terrible at recognizing them, so even if you're doing everything right … you might just get nothing, with no feedback.
So I still have a QR scanner app, as it is far easier to work and more reliable at scanning than the camera app is…