1

I have an app which will, at some point, require Facebook Messenger to scan QR to connect with a bot.

I found two ways to scan a QR with messenger so far:

1-) Launch messenger and go to "People" tab and press "Scan QR" -> Scan the code

2-) Launch messenger, open camera, hold down to screen until circle appears -> Scan the code

What I want to do is to reduce the steps required to scan a QR code.

I couldn't see any proper solution by going through the Facebook Android SDK & Messenger Platform docs.

So my questions are:

1-) Is there any way to at least start the messenger with QR code reader on through deep link or with any official API ?

2-) Is there any other way to scan Facebook specific QR's ( circle ones ) outside of Messenger and launch messenger as a result ? ( launch a bot chat on Messenger with QR result )

P.S.: I know that deep links may deprecate / change without notice. Answer here also states it, but when I check, I see WizKid's answer here is from 2014. I'm asking this question to learn possible ways and if they added any official way to communicate with it.

Mel
  • 1,730
  • 17
  • 33

1 Answers1

0

If you want for it to be scanned with any reader, you can generate your own QR pointing to: https://m.me/{page_name}.

m.me is a shortened URL service operated by Facebook that redirects users to a person, page, or bot in Messenger. You can use them on your website, email newsletters, and more.

When a user starts a new conversation or continues an existing conversation with your bot via an m.me link, the following message will appear in the conversation: "You have entered this conversation by following a link. We've let PAGE_NAME know you're here."

The format of the link is http://m.me/{PAGE_NAME}, where PAGE_NAME is the handle of the Facebook page the bot is linked to.

This will in fact deep link into a conversation with your bot.

Additional documentation for this is available in https://developers.facebook.com/docs/messenger-platform/discovery/m-me-links

Nazareno Lorenzo
  • 1,069
  • 2
  • 14
  • 25
  • Thanks, I can use regular QR's as last resort, my main effort for the second question is to figure out if it's possible to scan Messenger style QR's ( circle ones ) via any 3rd party scanner. – Mel Mar 08 '18 at 16:27