iPhone taking so long to open QR Codes

[SpitJack]

Hi all, we are soon to go live with Square for Restaurants using QR codes for Self Service.  When testing the QR codes I notice its taking so long to load when scanning QR Codes.  Is anyone else finding this?

[Arie]

Hi @SpitJack,

I noticed it's your first post, welcome to our community 👋 

After doing some testing on QR codes I created with my test account, I found that the time they take to open via an iPhone 13 Pro, running iOS 15.1.1, is similar to other QR codes I'm using day to day, e.g to check into venues. There are some common reasons you might have trouble scanning QR codes on iOS you can check out here. Please let us know how you go!

[SpitJack]

Hi Arie, thanks for the message! When trying it on an Android phone or even on an iphone but opening it in chrome its totally fine.  Seems to be when opening in safari. I am running version 15.2 on my iphone.  Are you able to update and then retest opening a QR code?  Thanks!

[Seamus]

Hey @SpitJack!

The speed at which apps scan QR codes/load content isn't actually dependent on anything Square does or can do.  If you're seeing issues scanning codes or loading them via certain apps, ultimately this comes down to those apps and the hardware being used, rather than the party who has generated a QR code for scanning.
 

Personally, I find the camera app on my old iPhone 8 to be horrendously slow to scan and load QR codes. When I access the camera to scan codes via other apps, I tend to get faster results. Ultimately this is all dependent on how each individual is scanning QR codes on their own devices, their hardware, apps, software etc. We're unfortunately not able to control these sorts of things - we provide the QR code, but the act of scanning as well as efficiency of scanning comes down to how any given person is scanning them and what tools they're using to do that.

[SpitJack]

Hi Seamus, thanks for the message.  Yep I wasnt for a moment suggesting the issue was with Square it was more I wanted to get a feel if anyone else had experienced the issue with v15.2 on an iphone.  The fact it works normally on Android points to the fact its probably an iphone issue!

Thanks again

[Seamus]

Got you @SpitJack!

For what it's worth I'm on 15.1.

I first noticed how bad it was when checking in to businesses using QR codes and also QR code ordering at tables. I eventually tried checking in via the Service Victoria app, which worked great - scanned every code almost instantly every time. It looks like we're seeing pretty similar issues here. My thoughts are the iOS camera app just isn't that good at scanning QR codes, or at least with my combination of hardware/software. It can be better in the perfect conditions - great lighting, front on, no reflective plastic covering the code - though conditions are rarely perfect!

[SpitJack]

Yep its a strange one. The weird thing is its actually recognising the QR code straight away, its when you click to open when the delay is seen.  Its like safari cant open the URL