How to share your contact with a QR code, and make it save with your photo

Put your details into a vCard (the standard contact format), then either encode the vCard itself into the QR code or encode a link to a page that serves the vCard. When someone scans either kind on a modern iPhone or Android phone, their phone offers to add you as a contact.

Both kinds work, and both start from the same format. A vCard is a short text file, standardised in RFC 2426 for version 3.0 and RFC 6350 for version 4.0, that every contacts app can read. The choice is whether the QR code carries that text itself, or carries a link to it. The rest of this guide is about why that choice matters so much once a photo is involved.

No. The largest QR code holds 2,953 bytes, and even a small contact photo is many times bigger than that. So the code has to carry a link, and the link delivers the photo.

The capacity limit comes from DENSO WAVE, which invented the QR code: its largest version holds at most 2,953 characters of 8-bit data. Here is what that looks like against a real contact file.

Even without a photo, a full contact makes a dense code, which is why static contact codes look so busy. The photo is in a different league: the file with it embedded is more than ten times what any QR code can hold.

The vCard file carries the photo inside it, encoded as text in its PHOTO field. When the phone imports the file, the picture comes in with your name and number.

vCard 3.0 lets the PHOTO field hold the image itself, written as base64 text, and marks it with ENCODING=b. Below is the file Ravencard actually generates for the example card, line by line. The photo line is shortened here; in the real file it runs to tens of thousands of characters.

1. BEGIN:VCARDWhere one contact starts.
2. VERSION:3.0The format: vCard 3.0, which the contacts apps on iPhone and Android both import.
3. N:Watanabe;Kenji;;;The name in parts — family name, then given name — so the address book can sort it.
4. FN:Kenji WatanabeThe name as it is shown.
5. ORG:Watanabe OfficeCompany.
6. TITLE:Principal ArchitectJob title.
7. TEL;TYPE=CELL:+81 3 6427 5520The mobile number, typed as a mobile.
8. EMAIL;TYPE=INTERNET:kenji@watanabe.officeEmail address.
9. URL:watanabe.officeWebsite.
10. ADR;TYPE=WORK:;;Nakameguro\, Tokyo;;;;
11. URL;TYPE=Ravencard:https://ravencard.app/u/kenji-watanabeA link back to the live card, which stays current after the contact is saved.
12. X-SOCIALPROFILE;TYPE=instagram:https://instagram.com/watanabe.officeA social profile. One line per link on the card.
13. NOTE:Small houses\, careful joinery\, and the occasional pavilion. Office of four in Nakameguro.The short bio, kept in the contact’s notes.
14. PHOTO;ENCODING=b;TYPE=JPEG:/9j/4AAQSkZJRgABAQAAAQABAAD…The photograph itself: a 600×600 JPEG, base64-encoded inside the file. Embedded, not linked — it is there offline and for good.
15. END:VCARDWhere the contact ends.

What the phone shows

Kenji Watanabe

Principal Architect · Watanabe Office

mobile

+81 3 6427 5520

email

kenji@watanabe.office

website

watanabe.office

The vCard standard allows the PHOTO field to be a web address, but developers report that Apple Contacts ignores photo links and imports only an image embedded in the file. A card that wants to arrive with your face on iPhone has to embed it.

The standard also allows PHOTO;VALUE=uri: followed by a web address, and on paper that looks like the neat solution: a small file that points at the image. In practice, developers have reported for years that Apple Contacts doesn’t fetch it. See the Apple Developer Forums thread on vCard photo URIs and univik’s guide to vCard photos, which both describe linked photos coming through blank on iPhone.

That is why Ravencard embeds the photo, and folds the long PHOTO line every 75 bytes, as the vCard format specifies. If a generator promises a photo in a contact QR code and gives you a URL field for it, test the result on an iPhone before you print.

Ravencard embeds your photo for you. Try it at /build.

A static code has your details baked in: it’s free, works offline and never changes, but it can’t include a photo and it’s wrong the day your number changes. A dynamic code holds a link, so it can serve a photo and always shows your current details.

A static code is a reasonable choice for something printed once and short-lived, like an event badge. For a card you will hand out for years, the dynamic code wins on both photo and accuracy. The same logic decides what to print on a paper card: a code that points, not one that holds.

Their camera shows a link; tapping it opens your card in the browser; tapping “Save contact” hands the phone a vCard, and the phone shows a new contact to confirm.

1. 01

   The camera reads the code

   On iPhone, the Camera app or the Code Scanner reads it and shows a link to tap, as Apple describes.

2. 02

   The card opens in their browser

   Your photo, your details and a Save contact button. Nothing to install.
3. 03

   They tap Save contact

   The phone receives the vCard, photo included.
4. 04

   They confirm

   The phone shows the new contact, and they add it to their contacts.

Yes. Android phones read QR codes with the camera or Google Lens, and import vCard files into Contacts. How the photo is shown depends on the phone’s contacts app.

Google documents both routes: the camera’s QR mode (for example on Pixel phones) and Google Lens in Chrome. Google Contacts can import a .vcf file. Android phones come with different contacts apps depending on the maker, so how the photo appears can vary.

The usual cause is that the file was opened inside a messaging app’s preview, which can drop the photo. On iPhone, open the .vcf from Safari or the Files app. The other cause is a vCard that links to the photo instead of embedding it.

The messaging-app preview is the case we know about and document on our support page. When the file itself is fine, opening it from a browser or the Files app imports it whole. If you made the code with another tool and the photo never arrives on any phone, look at the file: a PHOTO line with a web address instead of a long block of text is the likely culprit.

Not with a link-based code: it keeps working and shows your new details to anyone who opens it. People who already saved you still have the old number, though, because a saved contact is a copy. Send them your card again when something important changes.

This is the part most guides skip. A link-based code keeps pointing at the same address, so your card stays current for anyone who opens it. But the contact in someone’s phone was copied on the day they saved it. A Ravencard contact includes a link back to your card, so the current version is a tap away, but the saved number won’t change on its own.

NameDrop shares your contact card between an iPhone and a nearby iPhone or Apple Watch held close together. AirDrop sends files, including contacts, to nearby Apple devices. A QR code works with any phone camera, from a screen or from paper, including phones that aren’t made by Apple.

Apple documents NameDrop as a way to share new contact information with a nearby iPhone or Apple Watch, choosing the fields you send. AirDrop sends items to a nearby iPhone, iPad or Mac. Both are excellent when both people carry Apple devices and stand next to each other.

Open Contacts, tap My Card at the top, tap Edit, then tap your contact photo and choose one. Turning on Name & Photo Sharing lets iPhone share it when you call or message people.

These steps follow Apple’s guide to My Card for the current iOS. Your iPhone’s own contact photo is separate from the one on your digital card; it is worth making them the same picture, so people see one face everywhere.

A good contact photo is a square, well-lit head-and-shoulders shot with your face centred, because phones crop it into a circle. Ravencard resizes the photo for the contact file for you.

Ravencard turns your photo into a 600×600 JPEG for the contact file, which is enough for a sharp circle on any phone. The rest of what belongs on the card, and what to leave off, is in what to put on a digital business card.

Big enough that two different phones read it at arm’s length. Always leave the blank margin around it that the QR standard requires (four modules wide), and test before you print a batch.

DENSO WAVE asks for a quiet zone four modules wide on every side: a clear border with nothing printed in it. It is the part designers crop to make a code fit, and the most common reason a printed code won’t scan. A link-based code is also smaller than a contact-holding one, which gives you room to print it at a comfortable size.

Build your card at ravencard.app/build and add your photo. Ravencard gives you one QR code that opens the card, and its “Save contact” button hands over a vCard with your photo embedded. It’s included on the free plan.

The code on your Ravencard never changes, the card behind it can, and the vCard its Save button hands over always carries your photo. Save-to-contacts with your photo embedded is part of the free plan. When you’re ready, build your card, or see the whole handover on the home page first.