When to use it
Conference badges and slides, journalist and author business cards, shop and venue signage, press kits. X remains the place for live commentary and customer service in many industries, and a profile code gets people there without a typo.
The code on this page points at getqrstudio.app, because we do not encode third party accounts on the site. Yours will follow the pattern above.
How it behaves on phones
iPhone: the Camera app shows a banner naming x.com. Tapping it opens the X app on your profile if installed, through the universal link, or Safari if not.
Android: most Android scanners open the link and Android routes it to the X app. Without the app, Chrome shows the web profile.
Common mistake
Encoding twitter://user?screen_name=username. The app scheme fails silently when the app is not installed, and the app itself has changed name and behaviour since those schemes were common. The https link works with or without the app.
Gotchas
The login wall. X shows logged out visitors a profile with a sign in prompt over it, and limits how many posts they can read. A person who scans in a browser without an account may see very little. There is no workaround in the code; it is worth knowing so you are not surprised by feedback.
twitter.com or x.com. Both reach the same profile. https://x.com/username is 22 characters and fits version 2 at level M, 25 modules wide. The twitter.com version is 28 characters and needs version 3 if the handle is long.
Capitals. Handles are case insensitive, so HTTPS://X.COM/USERNAME reaches the same profile and uses the compact alphanumeric mode. Handles with underscores break the trick because _ is not in the alphanumeric set.
Renamed handles. Change your handle and every printed code leads to a “this account doesn’t exist” page. A dynamic code that redirects protects printed material.
Share links. Links copied from the app carry ?s= and t= tracking parameters. Strip them before encoding.
Try it in QR Studio
QR Studio has an X type that takes your handle and builds the x.com link, with the option to add the X logo inside the safe area of the code.
Print advice
Level M, Q with a logo. Badges and cards are read up close, so 2 to 2.5 cm is fine for this short payload. A slide shown on a projector needs the code at least 5 cm tall on a normal screen, larger in a big room. Print the handle beside the code, @username, for people who would rather search.
Try it yourself
Paste both forms of your profile link and see which version of code each one needs.