Do I have to use QR codes to use GS1 DL?

Modified on Tue, 20 Aug at 3:59 PM

No. The GS1 DL standard is completely agnostic about data carriers. 1D barcodes, DataMatrix, NFC, RFID, digital watermarking and more are all equally usable with GS1 DL.


However, not all data carriers are equally convenient. Those such as QR codes, NFC tags and non-GS1 Data Matrix symbols that encode full URLs are more easily accessed using a smartphone as they either need no app at all or a generic app that has no specific knowledge of GS1 Digital Link.


GS1 data carriers, such as GS1 DataMatrix, EAN-13/UPC-A, GS1 128 and RFID tags, at least for now, will need an app that understands GS1 DL. 

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