Universal Barcode Scanner #

Barcode and QR code scanning for Flutter, on Android, iOS, Linux, macOS, web and Windows, from one entry point.

_{iOS and Android above, web and Windows below.}

Platforms #

Windows needs the WebView2 runtime, which ships with Windows 11 and with any recent Edge. Linux needs WebKitGTK, libwebkit2gtk-4.1-0 on Debian and Ubuntu, which most desktop installs already carry.

The same bundled page serves both, and the plugin answers its camera permission request on the host side. That last part is what usually stops a webview from scanning on Linux: WebKitGTK denies a media request the embedder does not handle.

Install #

flutter pub add universal_barcode_scanner

Requires Flutter 3.27 or later.

Android #

Camera permission goes in your own manifest, android/app/src/main/AndroidManifest.xml:

<uses-permission android:name="android.permission.CAMERA" />

iOS #

A usage description goes in ios/Runner/Info.plist. iOS kills the app without it:

<key>NSCameraUsageDescription</key>
<string>Camera permission is required for barcode scanning.</string>

Windows #

Nothing to declare, but if you build with Visual Studio 2026 or later the build fails on error STL1011 from <experimental/coroutine>. That comes from the Windows Implementation Library pinned by the webview dependency, not from this plugin, and both Windows webviews on pub.flutter-io.cn pin the same 2022 release. Until it is bumped upstream, add this to your app's windows/CMakeLists.txt, above add_subdirectory(${FLUTTER_MANAGED_DIR}):

add_compile_definitions(_SILENCE_EXPERIMENTAL_COROUTINE_DEPRECATION_WARNINGS)

macOS #

Two things, and the scanner fails silently without either. A usage description in macos/Runner/Info.plist:

<key>NSCameraUsageDescription</key>
<string>Camera permission is required for barcode scanning.</string>

And the camera entitlement in both macos/Runner/DebugProfile.entitlements and macos/Runner/Release.entitlements, since a macOS app is sandboxed:

<key>com.apple.security.device.camera</key>
<true/>

Requires macOS 10.15 or later.

Web #

Browsers only hand out the camera on a secure origin, so the page must be served over HTTPS. localhost counts as secure during development.

Scan one code #

Opens the scanner as a route and comes back with what it read, or null if the user backed out:

final String? code = await UniversalBarcodeScanner.scan(context);

Keep scanning #

Same route, but every code read is emitted instead of the first one closing it. The stream closes by itself when the route goes away, whichever way it goes:

final StreamSubscription<String> sub =
    UniversalBarcodeScanner.stream(context).listen((String code) {
  debugPrint(code);
});

stream takes the same parameters as scan.

Embed the camera #

To put the camera inside your own layout rather than on its own route. Android and iOS only:

UniversalBarcodeScanner(
  continuous: true,
  onScanned: (String code) => debugPrint(code),
  onBarcodeViewCreated: (BarcodeViewController controller) {
    this.controller = controller;
  },
);

The controller drives the running camera:

await controller.toggleFlash();
await controller.pauseScanning();
await controller.resumeScanning();

App bar #

Passing a BarcodeAppBar is what makes the scanner show one at all:

UniversalBarcodeScanner.scan(
  context,
  barcodeAppBar: const BarcodeAppBar(
    appBarTitle: 'Scan',
    centerTitle: false,
    enableBackButton: true,
    backButtonIcon: Icon(Icons.arrow_back_ios),
  ),
);

The native namespace changed too, so the two packages can no longer be installed side by side in the same app. That was already true in practice: they declared the same Android package and the same iOS class, and the build failed on a duplicate.

Example #

example/ is one app with the three ways to scan, one screen each.

cd example && flutter run

Tests #

flutter test

Dependencies #

webview_all for the Windows and Linux scanners, and web for the iframe on the web. Nothing on Android, iOS or macOS beyond the SDKs.

Credits #

Derived from simple_barcode_scanner by Kunchok Tashi, which embeds the Android and iOS scanner of flutter_barcode_scanner by Amol Gangadhare. Both are MIT.

License #

MIT, see LICENSE.