Visiting a friend or inviting a guest might not be a good idea due to the coronavirus pandemic, but if you happen to visit a new place or have guests over, share of the Wi-Fi password is often seen as a problem. Some users still stick to the old method of entering passwords, and honestly, you shouldn’t manually type passwords in 2021. With Android 10, Android adopted the QR code mechanism to share passwords. Wi-Fi passwords, and today you learn how to use the feature on your Android phone.
Share Wi-Fi Passwords Using QR Codes on Android
If you have an Android phone running Android 10 or higher, you can use Wi-Fi Alliance’s Easy Connect Wi-Fi protocol to seamlessly share passwords via QR codes. A similar implementation may also be available in older Android phones running certain custom skins such as MIUI.
Generate Wi-Fi Network QR Code
1. Open your phone’s Settings app and go to Wi-Fi settings. Tap the Wi-Fi network in the list of available connections to open its dedicated page. Here you will see a “Share” button with a QR code icon. Tap it to continue.
2. Shortly after tapping the Share button, your device will require authentication to make sure it’s really you. You can use the device PIN or fingerprint to authorize the QR code generation request. Once the authentication is complete, you will see the QR code of the Wi-Fi network.
Scan the QR code of the Wi-Fi network
1. Now that you’ve generated the QR code, it’s time to let your guests (or you) scan it. Do this, tap the QR code icon next to “Add network” in Wi-Fi settings. From the QR code scanning interface, scan the QR code you just generated on the other device.
2. You can also tap the SSID of the target Wi-Fi network and then tap the QR code icon next to the password text box to enter the QR code scanning interface. Since this involves a few more taps to access the same setting, I recommend sticking with the first method.
Scan QR codes and easily connect to Wi-Fi networks
This is how you can easily share QR codes with your friends, guests or family. As you just saw, sharing Wi-Fi passwords is no longer a problem on Android and the days of manually entering passwords are over. You should consider using a password manager if you don’t want to type in passwords anywhere. For more helpful tips, check out our articles on protecting your Android device and changing app permissions on Android.
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