Create an SMS QR code

When a phone reads this code, the messaging app opens addressed to your number with the body of the message already written. Whoever scanned it reads the text, edits it if they want to, and presses send. Nothing goes out on its own, which is deliberate on the phone side rather than a limitation here, so the last step always belongs to the person holding the handset.

How to fill it in

• Use international format for the number if the code might be scanned outside your own country.
• Short codes and five-digit service numbers work too, provided the sender is on a network that accepts them.
• The message is optional, but a prefilled one is usually the entire point of the code.
• If the number feeds an automated service, write the exact keyword it expects, such as JOIN or a stop word.
• Try the code on both an iPhone and an Android handset, since prefilling the body is the part where support varies most.

Realistic uses

Parking bays, where a text starts the session and the bay number is already in it. Charity appeals on a poster, with the donation keyword written so the donor only has to press send. Opt-in lists at a stand or an event. Faults on lifts and vending machines, where the code on the panel produces a message carrying the machine identifier, so the report names the exact unit instead of the building it stands in. Every one of those removes the step where somebody mistypes a reference.

The number and the message are encoded into the image by this browser. No message is sent from this page, nothing is stored between visits, and no copy of what you typed leaves your device at any point.