How QR Profile Sharing Works on Stitch

What the QR code actually is

Every Stitch account has a personal QR code that acts as a shortcut to your profile — scan it, and the scanner is taken straight to your Stitch profile with the option to add you as a contact. It replaces the slower path of finding someone by username or phone number, which is especially useful in person: at an event, a class, or meeting someone new, where reading out a username is awkward but holding up a phone for two seconds is not.

Under the hood, your QR code encodes a short, unique code tied to your account, not your raw phone number, email, or any other personal detail beyond what your profile already shows publicly.

How to find and share your code

1. Open Settings and find your QR code (also reachable from your profile).
2. Show the code on-screen for someone to scan directly, or share it as an image through any app.
3. Anyone who scans it lands on your Stitch profile and can send a contact request from there — scanning does not add them automatically without your acceptance.

Scanning someone else's code

1. Open the scanner from the QR code screen or the add-contact flow.
2. Point your camera at the other person's code.
3. You will land on their profile, where you can send a contact request the same way you would from a search result.

Resetting your code

If you shared your QR code somewhere public — posted it online, printed it on something, or shared it with someone you later regret giving easy access to — you can reset it from the same screen. Resetting generates a brand-new code and link; the old one stops working immediately, so anyone who still has a copy of it can no longer use it to reach your profile.

Resetting your code does not affect any contacts you already have — it only affects future scans of the old code. People you have already connected with stay connected.

What scanning does not do

Scanning someone's QR code does not automatically make you contacts, does not open a chat with them, and does not give them any access to your account. It is equivalent to finding their profile by search — the only difference is how you got there. A contact request still has to be sent and accepted the normal way, and either person can decline.

When QR sharing makes sense — and when it does not

QR codes are ideal for in-person or trusted contexts: exchanging contact details at an event, sharing your code with a new coworker, or adding a friend across the room. They are less appropriate for public posting — a QR code on a public social media bio or a flyer works exactly like a public link, since anyone who scans it can find your profile. If you want to control who can reach you that way, keep your code private and reset it if it circulates further than you intended.

QR code versus a shared profile link

A profile link does everything a QR code does, just typed or tapped instead of scanned — it is the better option when you are sharing over text, email, or a chat platform outside Stitch itself, where there is no camera involved. The QR code's advantage is purely physical-world convenience: it is faster than reading out a username in person, and it removes the risk of a typo when someone tries to type your username from memory. Functionally, both point to the exact same profile and both are affected the same way by a reset.

Common situations people run into

• Someone screenshots your QR code instead of scanning it live — this works exactly the same as a live scan; the code itself does not expire or change just because it was captured as an image rather than scanned directly.
• You reset your code but a friend's old saved image of it no longer works — this is expected and is exactly what a reset is for; ask them to scan your new code or send them the fresh link instead.
• You want to share your code with one specific person privately rather than posting it — showing it on-screen in person, or sending the image directly in a private chat, keeps it out of any public or semi-public space where it could be captured by people you did not intend to share it with.