jdev - 2023-03-10

does it make sense to display a xmpp uri as QR Code?

are there smartphone clients who can interpret this and join a room for example?

lovetox: a qr code is just text, so yes

I have _very_ little knowledge about these things, but I guess it's more up to the smart phone's OS that allows clients to register for URIs?

moparisthebest, i did not ask if a barcode scanner can read a QR code

i asked if a smartphone client does something with it

that starts with the client having a button to even trigger the scanner out of the app

lovetox: no that's not how it works

Browsers on phones don't have buttons to scan qr codes

i have a smartphone maybe i should just try it :d

You open your qr scanner app, scan it, and the URL handler launches the right app

that would be pretty horrible UX

and its also not true

Conversations has a Scanner Button in the top bar

and when you press it and scann a qr code, it opens a join dialog for the MUC

so that answers my question

why use a QR code when you could just use a string?

Easier to open my camera app and scan a sign than type out a long URI

One way to copy and paste those strings across machines with cameras

NFC is even nicer in some cases. But a lot of people have it off by default and you can't display it on a website of course

singpolyma, open camera app and scan string? I didn't say that the user had to type the string ✏

I believe QRs are widely overused

Sure, OCR is just slightly less accurate and has no error correction

fair point with the error correction, but I would expect it to work reasonable well on modern devices

at least my Android reliable scans http URLs and marks them "clickable", I never noticed that the URL was wrong

It does rely on the human to look and click though. QR you never have to see the URI and it auto opens

OCR, never actually had that work well. And all our bills are even supposed to have an OCR-friendly font on them!

yes

singpolyma, Android's Camera app never auto opened an QR for me and I am not sure if this would be a wise behavior

or are we discussing the situation where the user pressed the "add friend" button in his chat app, and the camera scans for URIs? in that case, QRs and URI strings also seem to be equally powerful

I even assume that you could do some good matching for URI strings, as in, they have to start with "xmpp:" and end with a well-known top-level domain

It'll most likely end with some OMEMO fingerprints

don't get me wrong, QR codes have their use cases, like exchanging crypto signature data. but IMHO when it comes to exchanging relatively short addresses, then they provide no benefit, besides disguising the actual address ✏

why not offer multiple ways? WhatsApp offers "Share Link", "Copy Link", "QR Code"

Conversations has some options as well

wurstsalat, lovetox's initial question was "does it make sense to display an xmpp uri as QR code"

And then there's URLs ala https://yax.im/i/#bob@example.com

assuming we are talking about short URIs like xmpp:muc@chat.example.org then my answer is "probably not" or, at least show the QR code and the URI

flow, yeah, but in that case it would be a QR code in addition to the chat's URI and a copy button ;)

"Share this room / contact as QR" is definitely a nice thing to have

Spares me having to `qrencode -t ansi $(xsel -b)`

maybe, just make sure to also show the URI as string if it isn't too long

Showing the URI below in a field that can be copied would be fine, or something.

Dino has a QR popup button thing that's kinda nice.

for sharing groupchat uris?

No, for your own OMEMO fingerprints

yeah ok, everyone has that

we think about a "share" button and what it would show or can do

and obviously it has a entry "copy room link"

but the idea was if also a QR code should be shown additionally

flow: wait what Android camera does OCR? I've never seen such a thing

People are used to scanning qr codes though

"People" are "used to" ... sorta. Some of them. Sometimes.

moparisthebest: Google lens

So nothing on Android then

Some proprietary Google shitware only

Zash: I mean companies pay hundreds of millions of dollars to run TV commercials with QR codes only so... I assume they did some research before that

Only a QR code for 30s?

Yep

> "People" are "used to" ... sorta. Some of them. Sometimes. SOT: depends on the bubble and location I guess? In Chile during/after covid most dining places (almost all of them?) completely dropped printed menus and all tables are plastered with QR code that links to the menu and absolutely everyone scans them without batting an eyelid

Wojtek: Are you also located in Chile?

@Peter Waher yup, for a while at least :-) ✏

Wojtek: Good to know. Let’s connect over LinkedIn if you’re able, in case something comes up. I’m in Concón. Aware of others in Chile working with/interested in XMPP?

hi, i heard chile?

👍

nice

@Peter Waher send yout the request. I'm not aware of anyone else involved in XMPP here