SMS QR Code
A QR code that opens a text message — with the format problem explained before you print.
Phone number
Message (optional)
How this processes your file
Two formats are offered because there is no agreed one, and that is the thing worth knowing before you print anything. SMSTO:number:body is the older convention that dedicated scanner apps have always read. sms:number?body= is the URI scheme iOS handles natively. Neither is universal, so a generator that silently picks one produces a code that works for roughly half its audience and does nothing for the rest — with no error message on either side. The choice is exposed here, along with the escaping problem: SMSTO separates fields with a bare colon and has no escape mechanism, so a colon in your message is read as a separator.
What the results mean
- SMSTO:
- The older convention. Read by dedicated scanner apps and most Android cameras.
- sms:
- The URI scheme. Handled natively by iOS, with the body percent-encoded in a query string.
- A colon in your body
- Safe in the sms: form, ambiguous in SMSTO, which has no escaping at all.
- Sent automatically
- Never. The messaging app opens prefilled and the person presses send.
Common problems and fixes
- It works on Android but not iPhone
- You are almost certainly using SMSTO. Switch to the sms: format for an audience on iOS, or print both codes if you need to cover everyone.
- The message body is cut off
- A colon in the body, in SMSTO format, is being read as a field separator. Switch format or remove the colon.
- Can I make it send automatically?
- No, and no platform permits it. A code that could send a message without confirmation would be trivially abusable.
Frequently asked questions
Which SMS QR format should I use?
It depends who is scanning. SMSTO reaches Android and dedicated scanner apps; sms: reaches iOS natively. If the audience is mixed and it matters, the honest answer is that no single code covers everyone.
Why is there no standard?
Because the SMS QR conventions predate any standardisation effort and platforms implemented what was already common in their own market. Nothing has since unified them.
Can the message be sent without the person seeing it?
No. Every platform opens the messaging app with the text prefilled and requires the person to send it.