Twitter today introduced QR codes into its apps for iOS and Android, because not having QR codes was Twitter’s biggest existential threat as a business and the main reason that no one ever followed anyone on the service.
Twitter adds QR codes for some reason
When clicking the follow button feels too hard
When clicking the follow button feels too hard
is the editor of the Platformer newsletter and cohost of the Hard Fork podcast.
Before now, to follow someone on Twitter you had to click a giant button that said “Follow” at the top of their profile. Ugh, no thanks! Now, following someone is as easy as navigating to your profile, tapping the gear icon, tapping “QR code,” tapping the blue button to open the scanner, and scanning your friend’s QR code, assuming they have also navigated to their own profile and excavated the QR code and physically handed their device to you.
On Android, the QR code appears both in the menu you find by clicking the ellipsis (...) in your profile, and in the slide-out menu on the left under night mode. On iOS, the scanner only appears in the profile. If you manage to find your QR code, you can share it using your phone’s share sheet.
QR codes, whose visual aesthetic some have compared to robot vomit, are a popular way to add friends on Snapchat, and an unpopular way to add friends on Facebook Messenger. As of today, they are also on Twitter. For more previews of coming Twitter features, follow their head of product development.
Source: Brittany Forks (Twitter)
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