Ten Best Apps For Android : App 9 - Barcode Scanner

In last post I talked about a wonderful app called Androidify. I hope you had downloaded it and enjoyed by creating Android look-alike avatars. That was eighth of the best apps for Android from series of ten that I am presenting here. Today I am presenting the ninth of the best apps for Android. In case you are visiting this post directly and have missed earlier eight best apps for Android then you may like to read those from blog archive.

Today's app is one of the best apps written to capitalize the power of mobiles. It utilizes to it's best the capabilities of mobiles and in return make it even more powerful and useful. These types of apps are taking mobile applications to a different league.  This is the kind of app that Android users would be using very frequently in near future and it is called Barcode Scanner.

Barcode Scanner : As name suggest it is the app which you can use to scan the barcodes from products, newspapers, magazines, web pages and wherever you see the barcode. This is handy app to scan the barcode and read the information in it. It utilizes the camera of your phone to scan the barcode. It is specially useful when you want to do any of the following:

• Read the url of the website given in print material or desktop web page. It becomes very easy to scan it by barcode scanner instead of typing a lengthy url using mobile keyboard
• Scan a barcode of a product which you want to search on internet for more information e.g. the best price around
• Scan contact or other information encoded in barcode format

As soon as you start the app it displays red lines like laser lines with nice animations which gives very good laser effect.

Barcode Scanner in Action

On starting application it also starts displaying the camera input of your phone. You can now point your phone  at barcode and can see it in viewfinder of your Barcode Scanner app. With barcode in your view and nice animation of red laser lines gives you a nice feel of barcode scanner. Just adjust your phone towards barcode you are scanning and ensure that camera is able to get the good view of it. Keep your hand steady for app to identify it and it will read it.

Barcode scanned by Barcode Scanner

The screenshot above shows the barcode scanned by the Barcode Scanner app. Once scanned, app allows you to use that information in various ways. You can do the product search, Web search or launch Google Shopper. App can also scan the QR codes which are used quite frequently for sharing the information nowadays.

QR Code scanned by Barcode Scanner

Above screenshot shows a QR code scanned using Barcode Scanner app. Depending on the kind of information available in code, Barcode Scanner provides different relevant action buttons. In above scenario it is url of the web site and possible actions provided are "Open browser", "Share via email" and "Share via SMS". Tap the required button to take appropriate action.

Barcode scanner providea a share menu which allows you to share information about Application, Bookmark, Contact and from Clipboard. In case of application it is information about that application. In case of Bookmark you can share any of your bookmark from your phone.In case of Contact you can select the contact from your phonebook. In case of Clipboard it the information which is currently there on your clipboard, that is the last copied text. Once selected it is converted into a QR Code and you can share it with other phone by scanning it using the Barcode Scanner on that another phone.

You may would like to checkout the following video of Barcode Scanner app to see and understand its functionality better

So that was ninth of the best apps for Android from this series of ten best apps. You can download Barcode Scanner from Android Market for free and start using it to quickly scan barcodes, search and share information. Next time I would bring to you tenth of the best apps for Android, so keep tuned in and keep reading. Till then good bye and take care.