Turn your number into a code customers can scan to call you. The dialer opens pre-filled, so nobody mistypes a digit.
The code opens the dialer with the number filled in; it does not place the call. Write the number in full international form, starting with the country code, or it stops working the moment somebody scans it from another country.
Enter content to generate QR code
The code holds a tel: address, the same thing a "call us" link on a web page uses. Spaces are stripped so the number is one clean string, and the phone reacts by opening the dialer with it entered. The call is never placed automatically: the person still presses the call button, which is what makes an accidental scan harmless.
Number +1 555 000 1234, and the code holds:
tel:+15550001234The spaces are stripped so the dialer receives one clean string. That is the entire payload; there is no label, which is why the name of the business belongs in text beside the code.
Write the number as + then the country code then the rest: +15550001234. A local-format number works for people already in that country and fails for everyone else, which is exactly the audience a printed code tends to reach: visitors, tourists and anyone roaming. There is no downside to the international form; domestic phones handle it correctly.
Many dialers accept a comma as a short pause before extension digits, but handling is inconsistent between handsets and carriers, and a code that half-works is worse than one that does not. For a direct line, encode the direct number. Where an extension is genuinely needed, print it in text next to the code and let the caller enter it when prompted.
A tel: code carries a single number and no label, so a scan gives no clue about who is being called. Print the name of the department or business next to the code ("Reception", "Out of hours"); otherwise a photograph of the code taken a week later is an anonymous number in a dialer.
No. The number is placed in the dialer and the person presses call themselves, so an accidental scan never rings your phone.
Yes, in full international format such as +1 555 000 1234. Anyone scanning from abroad or roaming will otherwise get a number their phone cannot dial.
You can try a comma before the extension digits, which many dialers treat as a pause, but support varies enough by handset that it is not worth relying on for print. Encode the direct number and put the extension in text beside the code.
A phone code opens the dialer and nothing else. A vCard code offers to save a whole contact — name, company, email, website — to the address book. Use the phone code when the only action you want is a call.
Not on a printed static code. If the number may change, encode a dynamic QR code pointing at a contact page you control, and repoint it when the number moves.