Scannable Phone Screen?

[Doofus]

I decided it would be clever to put the barcodes of my various loyalty cards into my phone as images.

So I did.

Only to find out that my bloody phone screen can't be read by barcode scanners!

Is it the screen, or something I have done to the image files? (which is nothing, btw. They are .pngs)

Phone is a Samsung Galaxy S8

[MacW]

I have an S8 and it works fine for bar codes on boarding passes.

[Doofus]

Hmmm. I've not tried this phone with boarding passes, but my previous one was fine for that.

Might it be the image file itself?

[Doofus]

I was in a shop the other day, and the checkout lady couldn't scan my phone, but the lady in the next lane scanned her customer's phone with no problems, so it's not down to the laser scanner.

[craig1912]

ios has an app called “stocard” which stores all the card details and have scannable barcodes- try it if it’s also an android app

[Doofus]

I'll take a look. Thanks.

ETA. Thst's realy cool I hope the barcodes scan, because I realy like the app

Edited by Doofus on Wednesday 8th May 09:20

[GeneralSinn]

Doofus said:

I was in a shop the other day, and the checkout lady couldn't scan my phone, but the lady in the next lane scanned her customer's phone with no problems, so it's not down to the laser scanner.

The one that worked won’t have been a photo of the card / barcode it’ll have been the card / barcode in either its own app or a rewards card storage app the likes of mentioned above.

A photo won’t work (or only very rarely)

[Doofus]

GeneralSinn said:

The one that worked won’t have been a photo of the card / barcode it’ll have been the card / barcode in either its own app or a rewards card storage app the likes of mentioned above.

A photo won’t work (or only very rarely)

Whilst I'm using .pngs, they're not photos of the card. In this particular instance, I don't even have a card. I got an email with the barcode as an attacment, which is why I was surprised it didn't scan.

[Teppic]

Doofus said:

I'll take a look. Thanks.

ETA. Thst's realy cool I hope the barcodes scan, because I realy like the app

Edited by Doofus on Wednesday 8th May 09:20

It will depend on the shop. If they have older laser scanners then it won't scan. I've just tried it in Sainsbury's and it didn't work, but I know that it does work in Tesco as their scanners were upgraded a couple of years ago to image scanners (rather than laser ones), in order to accept the QR codes generated by their Tesco Pay and Clubcard apps.

[Doofus]

Teppic said:

It will depend on the shop. If they have older laser scanners then it won't scan. I've just tried it in Sainsbury's and it didn't work, but I know that it does work in Tesco as their scanners were upgraded a couple of years ago to image scanners (rather than laser ones), in order to accept the QR codes generated by their Tesco Pay and Clubcard apps.

As I said before, I don't think it's down to the scanners, because it worked for another customer at the same time that it was refusing to work for me.

[Teppic]

Doofus said:

Teppic said:

It will depend on the shop. If they have older laser scanners then it won't scan. I've just tried it in Sainsbury's and it didn't work, but I know that it does work in Tesco as their scanners were upgraded a couple of years ago to image scanners (rather than laser ones), in order to accept the QR codes generated by their Tesco Pay and Clubcard apps.

As I said before, I don't think it's down to the scanners, because it worked for another customer at the same time that it was refusing to work for me.

Sorry, but I was referring to the Stocard app. If the app works where you shop then great. All I'm saying is that the Stocard app works in my Tesco but not in my Sainsbury's, and that is down to the type of scanner that they use. Looking back at my reply I could have made that clearer.

[PF62]

Doofus said:

As I said before, I don't think it's down to the scanners, because it worked for another customer at the same time that it was refusing to work for me.

The scanners have a significant impact.

I never have a problem with boarding cards, Cineworld cinema tickets, or Tesco clubcard. At Waitrose however it doesn't work on most of the tills, only the new upgraded ones with an extra scanner on the bottom of the card machine.

If you use Android and it is just for store loyalty cards you don't need a separate app as Google Pay will save those. And for other codes I suggest PassAndroid https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=org.... rather than Stocard, which is awful as it is constantly calling home and trying to use your details for promotions.

[Doofus]

PF62 said:

The scanners have a significant impact.

I never have a problem with boarding cards, Cineworld cinema tickets, or Tesco clubcard. At Waitrose however it doesn't work on most of the tills, only the new upgraded ones with an extra scanner on the bottom of the card machine.

If you use Android and it is just for store loyalty cards you don't need a separate app as Google Pay will save those. And for other codes I suggest PassAndroid https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=org.... rather than Stocard, which is awful as it is constantly calling home and trying to use your details for promotions.

I don't use Google Pay. I haven't created an accout for Stocard, so they don't have my details to call me

[Doofus]

Teppic said:

Sorry, but I was referring to the Stocard app. If the app works where you shop then great. All I'm saying is that the Stocard app works in my Tesco but not in my Sainsbury's, and that is down to the type of scanner that they use. Looking back at my reply I could have made that clearer.

OK, understood. I know that the older scanners don't work, but I'd like at least one of my loyalty cards to scan, and at the moment, none of them do

[designforlife]

Make sure your screen brightness is turned all the way up, this makes a difference.

[AJB88]

Stocard works pretty well! as said above make sure brightness is decent and also night light isn't turned on.

[JDiz]

AJB88 said:

Stocard works pretty well! as said above make sure brightness is decent and also night light isn't turned on.

If the older scanners aren't working then get them to use the hand held scanner, that will work. If you're on a self checkout, tough luck

[R Mutt]

I know Saino's changed something so you can't use Nectar on your phone. Waitrose stopped working at the same time although I've just found out they have a separate scanner on the credit card reader rather than scanning the barcode from your phone like you would your shopping

[plasticpig]

No laser or led scanner will scan a phone screen. Image based scanners should be able to.

[AJB88]

plasticpig said:

No laser or led scanner will scan a phone screen. Image based scanners should be able to.

Thats strange I've just scanned mine on Tesco laser scanner and it worked.