QR codes were fairly popular at one time for sharing information quickly. They haven’t exactly gone out of style but you don’t find popular apps supporting them. Instead, apps like Facebook Messenger and Snapchat have their own branded codes. Essentially, these branded codes are fancy QR codes that make it easier to add people. LinkedIn has added a new feature that lets you share a QR code for your LinkedIn profile, and scan a QR code for someone else’s profile.
This feature was added as an app update. Make sure you’re running the latest version of the LinkedIn app.
Open the LinkedIn app and tap the search bar. You will see a ‘Scan code to connect’ option. Tap it.
This will take you directly to the code scanner. You might have to grant the app access to your camera first. Once you’re on the code scanner screen, you can point your phone at a QR code for a LinkedIn profile. If you have it saved to your camera roll, tap the ‘Scan from photos’ option.
To get a QR code for your LinkedIn profile, switch to the My Code tab. Here, you can share your QR code, or save it as photo to your camera roll.
While LinkedIn may have introduced QR codes for profiles so that it’s easier to add people, particularly at networking events, it goes without saying that these codes will replace the link to LinkedIn profiles people normally add to their CVs.
In the past, people have turned to QR code generators to create similar QR codes for pointing potential employers to their profiles. These codes are used on websites, visiting cards, CVs, and any other promotional material. LinkedIn is basically just catching up to how users share their profiles.
Since codes are so much easier to scan on phones, and you have to jump through hoops to scan a QR code on your desktop, this feature is only available on the LinkedIn smartphone apps. You can neither see your own QR code, nor scan one from the web interface. The scanning part makes sense but users ought to be able to save a QR code to their own LinkedIn profile from the web. Imagine working on your CV on your desktop and having to import the QR code from your phone. It’s not that big a deal to copy an image from the camera roll but it is annoying having to connect a device just to do it.
