Signal QR codes

What their code contains

A Signal QR code holds their username link, such as signal.me/#eu/ followed by a long code that only Signal can read. It doesn’t hold their name, username or number. So it gives met.cards a link only: a link that opens them in Signal.

Ask them to show it

On an iPhone or an Android phone:

1. Open Signal, tap Settings, then their name.
2. Tap Username, then QR code or link.

They need a Signal username first. Without one, Signal has no code to show.

Apps move these screens between versions. If the steps don’t match their app, look for a QR code icon on their profile or in their settings. Scan it from Capture in QR mode.

Last checked: not yet on a phone. These steps follow the app’s own help and may differ in their version.

What met.cards saves

met.cards shows Signal contact and explains: “Signal keeps the contact inside its own app, so we can’t read the name or number from this code. We’ll save a link that opens them in Signal.” Then choose:

• Type their name, to save the link with a name you type.
• Photograph their screen, to read the name from their phone. Ask them to open their Signal profile first, so their name is on the screen. met.cards reads the photo the way it reads a paper card, and keeps the Signal link.

Either way, the person’s page shows Signal under Profiles, with Open in Signal. An info icon next to it says “Contact code: opens in Signal, the name was added by you.”

Name and photo

Signal keeps the contact inside its own app, so met.cards can’t fill in the name or photo, and no setting changes that.

Troubleshooting

• The saved link no longer opens them. If they reset their username link in Signal, the old one stops working. Ask them for the new one and change it on their page.
• They have no code. Signal shows a code only once they’ve set a username.
• Nothing happens. Ask them to turn their screen brightness up, and tilt your phone so their screen doesn’t reflect the lights. Or take a photo of the code and pick it with the gallery button in QR mode.
• You already have them. A Signal code hides who it is, so met.cards can’t match it on its own. After you select Type their name and start typing, it suggests people you already have whose name matches what you typed, under Already in your connections? Select Add to on the right person, for example Add to Olena Koval, to add the Signal link to them. See When you already have them.