What a Wi-Fi QR code actually is
It is not a magic image: it is a plain, standardised string of text that phones know how to read. It fits on one line — network name, encryption type, password — and looks like this:
WIFI:S:MyNetwork;T:WPA;P:my-secret-key;;
The camera app on an iPhone or a recent Android phone recognises it with no extra app: it offers "Join network", and that is that. Nobody typed anything, so nobody got a character wrong — which removes half of all connection problems at a stroke.
Making the label in Stick-it
Add a QR code layer to your label, pick the "Wi-Fi" kind, then enter the network name and the password. The app handles the format, including escaping reserved characters — a password containing a semicolon or a colon breaks a hand-written QR code, but not this one.
Add a text layer beside it with the network name in plain sight: some older devices will not scan, and they need a way in. The QR code layer is part of the Pro version.
Holiday rentals, where it earns its keep
This is the use where the label pays for itself. In a short-term rental — Airbnb, a gîte, a bed and breakfast, a serviced flat — the Wi-Fi question comes up at every arrival, usually by message, usually in the evening, and usually after the guest has already tried to copy a key scrawled on a piece of card.
A label in the welcome book, on the fridge or next to the router removes the exchange entirely. Guests scan on arrival, without messaging you and without getting it wrong.
If you run several properties, lay out one sheet per property and print them in one go: each label carries the network for its address, and you keep spares to replace the ones that get scuffed. Put a second one in the bedroom or the living room too — that is where people actually reach for their phone, not in the hallway.
One last thing: if you change the key between seasons, the old label becomes a quiet trap. Reprint the sheet the day you change the password, not the week after.
Where to put it, and at what size
Medium (63 × 33 mm) is plenty: a QR code stays readable well below that size, and the phone moves closer by itself. The places that work are the places people settle: the hallway, the fridge, the spare room, or the router itself.
Laminate it with wide clear tape if it is going to live in a kitchen. A damaged or stained QR code scans badly: the format absorbs a little damage, but not a tear across the middle.
Put the guest network on it, not the main one
Most routers offer a guest network, separate from the main one. That is the one to put on the label, for a simple practical reason: your visitors get internet, but not access to your printer, your NAS or your smart devices.
And since a label on display is read by everyone, the key on it is then not the key to your own network. You can change it every season without reconfiguring a single one of your devices.
Hidden network? Tick the box
Some routers are set not to announce the network name: it does not show up in the list of available networks, and you have to type it by hand to connect. That is a hidden network.
A QR code for such a network has to carry an extra flag, telling the device to go looking for it instead of waiting for it to announce itself. Without that flag, scanning ends in a failed connection on a share of devices, Android in particular.
In Stick-it, a "Hidden network" switch appears under the password when the QR code layer is set to Wi-Fi. Turn it on if that is your setup: the app adds the flag, and the label works first time. Leave it off in every other case.
Updated 2026-08-22
