I have an S8, the camera reads QR codes fine. It looks like you may have to enable a setting the first time you read a QR code, after that it will do automatically and ask if you want to follow the link.

https://www.samsung.com/au/support/mobile-devices/samsung-qr...

On my Note 8 this feature works directly in the stock camera app. I didn't know about this, but I just tested it on the linked site and it works.

That's strange. I just tried it on my Note 9. It recognizes the QR code but just displays the unformatted WiFi string. Doesn't attempt to connect at all.

Very odd! I tested a friend's Note 9 and it works there too. Both phones are on T-Mobile with their latest Android update.

The Note 9 is Android 10, One UI 2.0, build QP1A.190711.020.N960USQS3DTB2.

The Note 8 is Android 9, One UI 1.0, build PPR1.180610.011.N950USQU7DTC1.

The QR code that it initially displays is invalid, type any text into the SSID/pass fields and it will work

This was likely the issue. I was testing it on the Netgear Orbi which seems to have a malformed string in their we codes.

I don't want the camera to "think", I want it just to take photos. Otherwise someone can spread small stickers with QR commands/URLs and your phone is trying to connect to www.sex-pills-malware.com/download-nasty-file.html

XKCD's bobby tables comes to mind. Sanitize your inputs. If you point & click and you immediately process what your camera sees, there is great risk in that.

I want a photo to be a photo. If I want to scan a QR code for the purpose of scanning a QR code, I use some special app (and Ι block it's Wifi/3G connectivity to enusre the QR app will not leak what Ι just photographed).

Edit: I follow the Steve Gibson school of thought. I want the "thing" to do the "thing", and nothing but the "thing". Camera should do camera-ing (adjust camera-related-attributes). QR app should do QR-app-things (show me in clear text the QR code and ask me what do I want to do with it)(register WiFi, visit a website, etc).

Without trying to be funny, perhaps you should use a camera then and not a phone, to take photos? You're already in the realm of your device doing many more things than "the thing".

As for scanning automatically, no camera app based scanner I have witnessed performs any action in response to finding a QR without user input. Of course this could still happen accidently or by the QRs content finding some vulnerability.

At the end of the day, I think QR scanning in the camera is the obvious solution to non-hacker-news-browsing-people, and to make it go mainstream it needs to be accessible.

In spite of the above, I still agree with you, and use a barcode scanner from f-droid myself.

IME the screen just shows a link icon when it detects a qr code, when the user taps the icon, the URL is displayed, and then the user taps again to browse to it / download / accept settings etc.

Even my Mum's old Moto G4 has this feature in the Camera.

I've been using a shell alias to call `qrencode` with the appropriate details for a few years now.