Google is adding a much requested feature to its Chrome browser.

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A new update to Chrome’s iPhone app — v56.0.2924.79 — introduces a built-in QR code scanner to the mobile browser. The feature can be accessed from the 3D Touch menu of Chrome, or by simply writing QR in Spotlight.

The addition of QR scanner in Chrome — something that many have longed for years — comes months after Google added this feature to Now on Tap, an extension of Google Now available exclusively on Android smartphones.

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Credit: manish singh/mashable india

At the time, Google had positioned the new feature as an ability to quickly learn about products using their QR codes. And rightly so, QR codes are a great way to exchange information.

In India, mobile wallet companies like Paytm and MobiKwik are onboarding merchants with their unique QR codes that users can scan and make payments, which has finally made QR codes mainstream.

Though perhaps it’s China which has truly tapped the potential of QR codes. Popular instant messaging app WeChat supports the feature and lets users do a plethora of things with it, including pay for food. Such is the significance of QR codes that WeChat founder Allen Zhang recently mentioned QR codes 22 times in a 90-minute speech.

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TopicsGoogle