Video to QR Code: Play a Video From a Printed Page
Want a QR code that plays a video? Here's how to make one in Linkly: copy the video link, paste it in, and print the QR code on the box, the card or the manual. It plays on any phone, with no app to install, and you can swap the video later without reprinting anything.
Transcript
The full spoken transcript, split by chapter.
- 0:00Paper can't play a video
- Paper can't play a video. A QR code on the card gets you close enough, and it takes about a minute to set up. This is the card that goes in the box. Somebody printed a play button on it, which is optimistic, because it's paper. What does work is a small QR code that points at the video, and the camera everybody already carries. Any video link works.
- 0:18Copy the video link
- YouTube, Vimeo, a file on your own site. Open the one you want, hit Share, and copy the link. That's the whole first step, and it's the only time you'll touch the video platform. Paste it into Linkly.
- 0:29Make the QR code
- Short ending, a name you'll recognise later, and save. The QR code is drawn as soon as the link exists, so there's no second tool and no export step. Grab the PNG for print, or the SVG if it's going on packaging, and hand that to whoever does your artwork. Nothing else to configure. They scan the QR code, and the video plays. Some phones open the YouTube app, some open the browser. Both play it, and neither one needs an install.
- 0:55Swap the video later
- Here's the part people miss. Re-record the video next year, and you don't reprint the box. Open the link, paste the new video in, and save. The QR code that's already printed starts playing the new one, the same afternoon. Nobody has to know. You also get to see how many people
- 1:09Every scan is counted
- watched, and roughly where they were. Which is more than you can say for a printed instruction sheet. If nobody's scanning it, the QR code is probably in the wrong place on the box. It's free to start, and everything you need is just below this video.
