In Japan, QR codes are used quite a bit, so I thought I might give my impressions of the various free QR code reading apps for the iPhone. There are several free QR code readers out there, and they work with varying results. One problem often encountered is the fact that the iPhone’s camera is not intended for macro use and close-up images blur too much–so unless the QR code you want to scan is relatively large, the iPhone won’t be able to handle it. That said, here are the reviews, from worst to best.

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In the “don’t bother” category:

The worst app I tried was iDecode from Haploid. A lot not to like here. For one thing, it failed to scan a barcode where all the other readers succeeded; almost as bad is the fact that it’s ad-supported, which means that if you don’t like ads sliding across the bottom of the screen fairly frequently, then you won’t like this app.

The next worse I tried was 2-D Sense. It allows for the use of a wide range of code types and has fairly customizable settings. You also are given then chance to rescale the code for better reading reliability, something all the apps I tried save for iDecode had. However, although it was able to scan larger QR codes (it had trouble with medium-sized ones that other readers could handle), I couldn’t make it save the codes or go to the site that was revealed. Maybe I was doing something wrong, but after trying several times, I couldn’t make it work. Additionally, if there is a failed scan, you have to retake the entire photo to try again. To top it all off, it crashed once while I was trying to use it. It got a little further than iDecode and shows promise, but ultimately failed to do the job.

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In the middle are these two apps:
NeoReader [iTunes link] is a simple but fairly effective reader. It does its job, though with very few options. One problem was that on standard settings, it doesn’t confirm the scan, instead it just jumps straight to the page (something you probably won’t want to do); you have to go into the settings to change that. Otherwise, it seems to be a competent reader.

Also in the category of “simple but it works” is Snappr [iTunes link]; it scans, it reads, it goes. Not much more to say.

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Two readers stood out as superior, and have similar names: Barcode and Barcodes.

Barcode [iTunes link] was one of the first readers made available. It has a nice, customized code target area which makes pretty clear exactly where the code should be when you zoom and adjust the image you took. It reads to code reliably, and saves results you want. There are options for recognizing email addresses and phone numbers from QR codes and then sending email or dialing a number, but I could not get them to work.

The best I tried, however, was BarcodeS (plural, emphasis on the “S” mine) [iTunes link], not to be confused with “Barcode” (singular). Barcodes worked the fastest and most reliably. Additionally, it can read QR-coded phone numbers and call the number up, something that Barcode failed to do for me.

One more point in favor of Barcodes: there is one QR code I found which, in almost all readers I tried, yielded an error in the URL it expressed; almost all readers got a long string of junk following the URL, which had to be pared down in Safari. All the other readers I tried got the junk URL, but Barcodes alone successfully weeded out only the working address. If you want a simple, easy-to-use, and reliable QR code reader, then Barcodes is probably the best–but it might be nice to have Barcode as a backup, especially if they ever get the phone & email thing worked out.

Both Barcode and Barcodes have the ability to scan images saved in your iPhone’s photo album, so you can snap quick pictures on the go (or with better-quality photo apps like Darkroom) and then scan the QR code later.