QR code types

URL and app link codes

A URL code carries a web address. An app link carries a URL that a mobile operating system recognises as belonging to an installed app, and which falls back to the web when the app is missing.

Reviewed August 20, 2026

Steps

1. Create a URL code and paste the full address, including https://.
2. For an app link, use the universal or app link URL the app vendor publishes — not a custom scheme like myapp://, which most camera apps refuse to open.
3. Make sure the fallback web page is worth landing on, because everyone without the app will see it.
4. Choose dynamic mode if the target may move, or if you want to measure the campaign.

How to check it worked

Scan on a phone with the app installed and on one without it. The first should open the app, the second should land on the fallback page rather than an error.

What usually goes wrong

• Using a custom scheme, which silently fails in the camera app.
• Pointing at a page that redirects to plain HTTP somewhere in the chain.
• A tracking parameter that the destination strips, so attribution disappears.