The Future of QR Codes: Technology, Applications, and Trends

The QR code is more than 30 years old. It was created in 1994 at DENSO in Japan to track car parts, and spent its first decades as an industrial tool before phones learned to scan it. Today it's on menus, parcels, payment terminals and product packaging. So where does it go from here?

This article separates what's already happening, backed by published standards and industry programmes, from what's likely, which is our analysis. We've avoided the breathless predictions common in this topic; a format this embedded changes gradually.

Already happening

1. The standard keeps evolving

QR codes are defined by the international standard ISO/IEC 18004, first published in 2000 and now in its 2024 edition. A maintained standard means generators, scanners and printers can keep improving while staying compatible with the billions of codes already in circulation. That backward compatibility is one of the format's greatest strengths: a code printed in 2010 still scans on a phone made today.

2. QR codes at the retail checkout

This is the biggest structural change. Retail checkouts have relied on 1D barcodes such as UPC and EAN for decades. In January 2022, GS1 US announced that the retail industry would work towards a transition from U.P.C. barcodes to 2D barcodes on product packaging, with 2027 as the industry's target. The programme is widely known as Sunrise 2027.

The 2D formats involved include QR codes using GS1 Digital Link and GS1 DataMatrix. A GS1 Digital Link QR code contains the product's GTIN in a web-address format, so one code can serve the checkout (price lookup) and the shopper (product information on their phone). Brands are being encouraged to add 2D codes carrying the same GTIN as their existing barcode, while keeping the 1D barcode during the transition.

What it means: more products will carry a single code that does several jobs, and that code will increasingly be a QR code. We explain the practical side in QR codes for product packaging and the background in QR code vs barcode.

3. Standardised QR payments

QR codes are a major payment method in many countries. To make them interoperable, the payments standards body EMVCo publishes EMV QR Code specifications covering two modes: merchant-presented, where the shopper scans the shop's code, and consumer-presented, where the shop scans a code shown on the shopper's phone. EMVCo notes that merchant-presented payments generally need a payment or wallet app rather than the phone's generic camera.

What it means: payment QR codes will keep growing, but they live inside banking and wallet apps with their own security, not as plain links you make in a generator.

4. New shapes for small spaces

DENSO WAVE, the QR code's originator, introduced the rMQR Code (rectangular Micro QR Code) in 2022. It's a long, thin variant designed for narrow spaces such as the edges of electronic components, medical devices and forms, and it has its own ISO standard, ISO/IEC 23941. Expect to see it in industrial and healthcare labelling more than on consumer packaging, because phone support isn't as universal as for regular QR codes.

5. Security is getting more attention

As codes became everyday objects, scammers followed. Consumer-protection agencies such as the US Federal Trade Commission continue to issue alerts, including in September 2026 about fake codes stuck on parking meters. Phone makers have responded by showing link previews before opening a scanned address. Our guide to QR code safety covers the details.

Likely developments (our analysis)

Codes that point to your own domain will win trust

As people learn to check link previews, codes that open a recognisable brand domain will be trusted more than those that pass through anonymous short links. We expect businesses to move printed codes to short, stable addresses on their own sites, which also avoids dependence on subscription QR services. We make the case in static vs dynamic QR codes.

Packaging becomes a long-lived information channel

With GS1 Digital Link, one code on a pack can lead to different information over a product's life: usage tips at first, recall notices if needed, recycling guidance at the end. The code stays the same; the information behind it changes. This depends on brands maintaining their product pages, which is the less glamorous part of the future.

More scanning without a dedicated app

Phones already scan codes from the camera, and laptops increasingly can through browser tools that use the webcam, like our scanner. As this becomes universal, the remaining friction is the destination page: fast, mobile-friendly pages will matter more than the code.

Better accessibility practices

QR codes can be a barrier for people with low vision or without a smartphone. We expect better practice to become normal: printing a short web address beside the code, providing audio or large-print alternatives, and making destination pages accessible. That's good design, and in some sectors it's also a legal expectation for digital services.

Design freedom within tested limits

Branded codes with colours, patterns and logos are now common, and tools that check scannability automatically (as our generator does) make it easier to be creative without breaking codes. The physics of contrast and quiet zones won't change, though, so the fundamentals in our design guide will stay relevant.

What probably won't change

• The format itself. Billions of printed codes depend on backward compatibility; radical changes to QR Code would make little sense.
• The need for testing. Printing, materials and lighting will always cause surprises.
• Static codes for simple jobs. Wi-Fi, contact cards and text work best encoded directly, with no server involved.