scanning a QR code on my mac screen with my phone

Hi,

You can scan QR codes a couple of ways.
1. Go to settings, camera, and then make sure scan for QR code is turned on. With the QR code on your Mac screen, open your camera app on your iPhone, make sure the back camera is pointing at your computer screen, and then double tap on scan QR code from within the camera application. Be sure to have the phone at least a foot to about a foot and a half away from the screen for better results.
2. Alternatively, you can ask Siri to scan a QR code, just say "Hey Siri, scan a QR code". This should open the code scanner, which is kind of a hidden application on your device. From this point, just aim your back camera at your computer screen, like I instructed above, and just wait for the application to do its thing.

HTH. :-)

2.
Wow, I know ditching on siri is popular now but I didn't know that at all! Or that hidden app or whatever. My guess is that it's just the equivalent of invoking the camera role view with some --options.

Okay this is the weirdest thing I've ever seen from apple, the code scanner is actually a real app in the app switcher but not one that we can open manually without siri it's not in the app library or accessible with bsi. Only with siri and control centre or in the camera app. Why do they think it's convenient and a good UX?...

Like I said, kind of hidden.

I took flashlight and camera off my lock screen and replaced them with scan code and silent mode. Customizing the lock screen is pretty cryptic. There's no obvious way to do it. I did it months ago and have completely forgotten the steps.

Last time I had to scan a code on my desktop display was when I used ApplePay to make a purchase. I'm unsure why I can't simply ApplePay from my desktop. But Apple has set it up so that I have to scan a code and authorize payment from my phone. And I remember it being pretty challenging. For example, the code had a timeout, two minutes I think, and yes, it really did time out on me, because it actually took me longer than two minutes to get just the right camera angle and camera distance. I have no clue why this is so difficult. It has to be a challenge for sighted people as well.

A general rule of thumb, especially for whatsapp I have personally experienced, try to get the app in full screen with full brightness and just point to the centre of the screen with the phone camera with gut feelings. Whatsapp code is actually quite easy although I also sometimes just use a code as it's easier for us.

In case you (or anyone else reading this later) still need an answer, the Back-Facing Camera is the camera on the back of the device. To use the back-facing camera to take a picture of something in front of you, you would want to hold your device with the screen pointing towards you.

It's not always obvious, but don't forget that any changes to the zoom level will completely mess up the QR code on your computer screen and make it unreadable to the scanner. So make sure the zoom level is 100% before you start, otherwise you'll get stressed out very quickly. It can be surprisingly fast once you get the knack.

And yeah that UI for the QR scanner is just plain weird.

As to customising lock screen, press and hold. I never did it only because you have to add a new screen before you can customise the default one, and every time you do a reset of the home screen layout you lose your customisations. So that, eventually, it's just too much work to bother with if you like having a reasonably concise home screen layout. Be great if Apple would fix it, but I doubt they will; there are already places, like the Batteries widget, where there's no other way to obtain the information. Widgets have always been a bit suspect to me and I tend not to use them. Anyway, rant over, for now …

Going back to the poster's original message, if you need to scan a QR code to link your WhatsApp account with your Mac, you can just open the WhatsApp app on yor phone, select the Settings tab at the bottom right, then navigate until you reach the option called "Link Devices", select that and at the top, there's a button called "Link Devices. You may be required to use Face ID/Touch ID to authenticate, then point the back camera to your screen.

Now this can be a bit challenging, but eventually, the camera will pick up the QR code and then your WhatsApp app on your Mac will load your messages and chats, then voilà... your Mac is now linked to your WhatsApp account.

Now, perhaps using iOS' code scanner app might also work, I not really sure as I always did this through the WhatsApp app on my phone. Thankfully though, once you've linked it, it won't ask you to do this again for a long while, if ever.

HTH!

I know, there's always one, and it's usually me. But no matter what I do, I cannot get my phone to find the QR code, whether I do it through the WhatsApp iPhone app or using the code scanner. And yes I did remember to turn screen curtain off.

In the past I have had to get a working pair of eyes to do it for me but I just don't understand why I can never find it.

I notice on the iPhone app there is an option to do it via phone number instead, but I can't find the option in the Mac app.

I think if you do set it up, you need to use it from time to time to avoid it logging you out.

In the past, I've gotten it to work by scanning the QR code on my mac with my phone. But the past several times, it hasn't worked. I don't understand why whatsapp can't just let us use passwords with two factor authentication instead of a QR code, or even why it unsyncs my mac, heaven forbid, I don't open whatsapp on my mac every single day, just keep me logged in if I choose to do so, sheesh! Anyway, I'll try to put the mac in fullscreen, and see if I can get it that way.

Brian:

Thanks for the steps to scan these codes. I too did not know Siri could do this.

It does not happen often, but sometimes Siri is actually useful.
True story.