How to Share Wi-Fi With a QR Code (iPhone and Android)

Reading out a 20-character Wi-Fi password to every guest gets old fast. A Wi-Fi QR code does it for you: they scan, tap once and they’re online. Here’s how to show one from your phone, and how to make one to print.

Share Wi-Fi from an iPhone

iOS 18 and later. The Passwords app can show a QR code for any Wi-Fi network your iPhone has joined.

1. Open the Passwords app.
2. Tap Wi-Fi and pick your network.
3. Tap Show Network QR Code.
4. Your guest points their camera at your screen and taps Join.

This works for Android guests too, because the code uses the standard Wi-Fi QR format.

iPhone to iPhone (any recent iOS). If your guest also has an iPhone and is in your contacts, they can just try to join the network. Your iPhone shows a “Share password” prompt; tap Share Password. Both phones need Wi-Fi and Bluetooth on and need to be close together.

Share Wi-Fi from an Android phone

On Android 10 and later:

1. Open Settings › Network & internet › Internet (names vary a little between phone makers).
2. Tap the gear next to the network you’re on.
3. Tap Share. Confirm with your fingerprint, face or PIN.
4. A QR code appears, with the password written under it.

Google’s help page has the details for each Android version: Connect to Wi-Fi networks on your Android device.

Print a Wi-Fi QR code for guests

For a café, an Airbnb, an office or a guest room, a printed code saves you from handing over your phone. Any Wi-Fi QR code generator will do; the code just has to contain the right text.

What’s inside a Wi-Fi QR code

A Wi-Fi QR code is a short line of text in a widely used format:

WIFI:T:WPA;S:Corner Cafe;P:chai2026;;

• T: is the security type: WPA (also used for WPA2 and WPA3 in most scanners), WEP, or nopass for an open network.
• S: is the network name (SSID), exactly as it appears, capitals included.
• P: is the password.
• Add H:true; if the network is hidden.

If the name or password contains \, ;, ,, : or ", each of those characters needs a backslash in front of it. Good generators do this for you. The format is documented in the ZXing project’s barcode contents notes, which most scanner apps follow.

Make it on your phone

In QR Code Scan Kit, go to Create › Wi-Fi, type the network name and password, and pick the security type. The app reads the code back to check it scans before you save or share it. You can add a caption such as “Scan for Wi-Fi”, a frame, your colours and your logo, and print or export it as SVG.

Print tips

• Size: 5 cm (2 inches) or bigger for a table card; bigger if people scan it from across a room.
• Add a caption such as “Scan to join the Wi-Fi”, plus the network name and password in text, for anyone whose phone won’t scan.
• Matte paper avoids glare. Laminated, glossy cards are the most common reason a Wi-Fi code fails in a café.
• Test it with two different phones before you print a stack.

Keep it safe

A Wi-Fi QR code is not encrypted. It holds your password in plain text, and anyone who scans it, or just takes a photo of it, can read it.

• Use a guest network for printed codes, separate from the network your computers and smart devices use. Most routers have this setting.
• Change the guest password now and then, and print a new code when you do.
• Don’t post a photo of your Wi-Fi code online.

Scanning someone else’s Wi-Fi code

On iPhone, the Camera app reads Wi-Fi codes and shows a Join button. A scanner app shows more: the network name, the password (handy for a laptop that can’t scan) and the security type. QR Code Scan Kit shows all three and joins the network in one tap, for free. On a computer, our Wi-Fi QR code scanner reads the password from a screenshot of the code.

Sources

• ZXing project: Barcode Contents, Wi-Fi network config
• Google: Connect to Wi-Fi networks on your Android device