Chrome’s Dino-branded QR Code generator working in Dev channel

The line between mobile and desktop continues to blur as both the Chrome browser and the OS add features to move seamlessly between your PC and your phone. Features such as “send to device” and the ability to pick up on your Chromebook where you left off on your phone. All of this is great for increasing productivity or putting a pin in the content you’re viewing until a more convenient time.

The latest addition to the Chrome-to-phone sharing arsenal comes in the form of a QR Code. We’ve seen this flag in the Canary channel for some time but it has definitely remained a work in progress with no functionality to speak of until now. A recent update to the Developer channel of Chrome OS brings the feature closer to Stable and the QR Code sharing is actually working. To enable the feature, you have to toggle on the flag #sharing-qr-code-generator which will give you two methods with which you can create the quick-link image.

When enabled, you can right-click anywhere on a webpage or click the QR Code icon that now appears on the right side of the URL bar. The QR Code can then be modified by editing the URL in the box below the image.

Everything appears to be working as you’d expect apart from the download option. Once the code is generated you can scan it with Google Lens, Lens-capable camera app or QR Code scanner, and the URL will pop up for you to click and open in Chrome. This will be an exceptionally handy feature when sending a URL via email or creating QR Codes for stuff like printed flyers and such. I would expect that the QR Code feature should move up the ladder relatively soon and we should see it land in or around Chrome and Chrome OS 84.