Venmo Rolls Out QR Code Feature To Ease P2P Mobile Payments

Venmo recently launched a new QR code feature to more easily locate friends within its mobile payments app.

According to a news report in TechCrunch, the new feature is aimed at easing the person-to-person (P2P) payments process, making it easier for users to add connections to the list of people they pay — or who pay them. The feature is located under a new menu option dubbed Scan Code and now works for both the iOS and Android versions of the mobile payment app.

A Venmo user will have the choice to either use his or her mobile phone’s camera to find a friend’s QR code or to view a unique Venmo code. Users, reported TechCrunch, can also post the P2P QR code to other messaging apps such as iMessage as well as social networks, emails or notes, and save an image in the phone’s photo gallery to easily use at a later point.

The news report noted a small QR code also appears next to the photo of the user in the Venmo mobile app. If users choose to tap on that QR code, it will open a bigger screen view of the QR code for easy scanning, the report noted.

Prior to the launch of the QR codes function, users would have to first add a friend by sending them a payment via phone number or email address. Another option, noted TechCrunch, was to log into Venmo and send an invite to a friend. The use of QR codes as a P2P payment method is growing in popularity with the rise of mobile payment apps for Android and iOS.

QR codes are also very common in China, which leads the world in terms of digital payments. Back in 2015, Snapchat rolled out Snapcodes to connect users of the app, noted TechCrunch. Messenger Kik, WeChat, Line and Spotify have also embraced QR codes, and Apple is reportedly testing a QR code scanning capability that would function directly from the phone’s camera, noted the report.