# MeCard
> Source: https://docs.barcoder.ai/docs/standards/mecard
> research date 2026-06-03 · extracted at 2026-10-03
> Publisher: Barcoder — encyclopedia of QR, barcode and payment-code standards
Specifications:
- [Barcode Contents — ZXing Wiki](https://github.com/zxing/zxing/wiki/Barcode-Contents)
- [MeCard (QR code) — Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MeCard_(QR_code))
## Overview
**MeCard** is a compact contact-card text format that is encoded inside a standard [QR Code](https://docs.barcoder.ai/docs/standards/qr-code) symbol so a phone can read a person's details and add them to its address book. It was created by the Japanese carrier **NTT DoCoMo** for QR-code use on cellular phones, and is "a data file similar to vCard" but deliberately terser to fit comfortably in a small QR symbol [2][2].
A MeCard payload is a single line beginning with `MECARD:` and ending with two semicolons (`;;`), with each property written as a `TAG:value;` pair [2][2]. Its importance beyond contacts is structural: the `WIFI:` network-join syntax (see [WiFi QR](https://docs.barcoder.ai/docs/standards/wifi-qr)) is a direct descendant of MeCard's grammar and escaping rules [1][1].
## History
MeCard was developed by **NTT DoCoMo** in Japan for sharing business-card details via QR codes on cellular phones, in the era of DoCoMo's i-mode mobile-internet ecosystem where QR adoption was already widespread [2][2]. The format was never published as an ISO standard or an RFC; there is "no place on the web that defines a standard for MeCard," and the original NTT DoCoMo page that defined the layout has long returned a 404 [2][2].
The convention survived because it was documented and implemented by the **ZXing** project as part of its "Barcode Contents" formats, and because the `WIFI:` QR syntax adopted MeCard's grammar wholesale [1][1]. The format was later recognized within the Open Mobile Alliance's Mobile Codes work as a known recognizable format [2][2].
## Technical specification
ZXing's canonical example is [1][1]:
```
MECARD:N:Owen,Sean;ADR:76 9th Avenue, 4th Floor, New York, NY 10011;TEL:12125551212;EMAIL:srowen@example.com;;
```
The record starts with `MECARD:` and ends with `;;`; **fields are separated by a single semicolon (`;`)** and within a field the **tag and value are separated by a colon (`:`)** [2][2]. MeCard is UTF-8 based (ASCII-compatible) [2][2]. Documented tags include [2][2]:
| Tag | Meaning |
|---|---|
| `N` | Name — mandatory; written `last,first` |
| `SOUND` | Phonetic (kana) reading of the name |
| `TEL` | Telephone number |
| `TEL-AV` | Videophone number |
| `EMAIL` | Email address |
| `NOTE` | Memo / free text |
| `BDAY` | Birthday, 8 digits (`YYYYMMDD`) |
| `ADR` | Address |
| `URL` | Website |
| `NICKNAME` | Nickname |
**Escaping** follows the same rule the `WIFI:` format borrowed from MeCard: the special characters `\`, `;`, `,`, `"` and `:` are escaped with a leading backslash [1][1]. Only the `N` field is mandatory; the format's design goal is to use as few characters as possible given the size limit of a QR Code [2][2].
## Use cases
- **Compact digital contacts.** MeCard carries the most-used contact fields (name, phone, email, address) in the fewest characters, producing smaller QR codes that are "easier to scan and print" than the equivalent vCard [2][2].
- **Business cards and phone-to-phone exchange.** Its origin was sharing keitai (cellphone) business-card details by QR in Japan [2][2].
- **Camera-native add-contact.** Like vCard, MeCard payloads are recognized by general-purpose QR scanners and surface an "add contact" action [2][2].
## Implementations
| Project | Lang | Stars | Last active | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| [zxing/zxing](https://github.com/zxing/zxing) | Java | ~34k | 2025 | Reference parser; its "Barcode Contents" page is the most-cited MeCard definition [1][1] [5][5] |
| qrcode-library (readthedocs) | PHP | — | — | Documents and generates MeCard payloads [4][4] |
## Comparison
- **MeCard vs vCard.** vCard is the richer, IETF-standardized format (see [vCard QR](https://docs.barcoder.ai/docs/standards/vcard-qr)) with typed parameters, photos and many properties; MeCard is the compact NTT DoCoMo format that carries only the common fields and therefore "needs very few chars," yielding smaller, more scannable codes [2][2].
- **MeCard vs [WiFi QR](https://docs.barcoder.ai/docs/standards/wifi-qr).** Same family: the `WIFI:` payload reuses MeCard's `TAG:value;;` structure and backslash-escaping, applied to network credentials instead of contacts [1][1].
## Fun facts
- There is **no canonical specification** for MeCard anywhere on the web — not ISO, not an RFC — and the original NTT DoCoMo definition page has returned a 404 for years; the format is effectively defined by ZXing's documentation and by implementers [2][2].
- Despite being undefined on paper, MeCard's grammar became the **template for the worldwide WiFi-sharing QR format**, making a vanished Japanese contact spec the ancestor of one of the most-scanned QR types today [1][1] [2][2].
## Status
**Niche but alive.** MeCard remains widely supported by smartphone QR readers as a compact contact format, even though it never received a formal standard, and its grammar lives on in the `WIFI:` convention [1][1] [2][2].
## Sources
[1]: https://github.com/zxing/zxing/wiki/Barcode-Contents
[2]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MeCard_(QR_code)
[4]: https://qrcode-library.readthedocs.io/en/latest/formats/me-card/
[5]: https://github.com/zxing/zxing
[1] [Barcode Contents](https://github.com/zxing/zxing/wiki/Barcode-Contents) — ZXing Wiki
[2] [MeCard (QR code)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MeCard_(QR_code)) — Wikipedia
[4] [Me card](https://qrcode-library.readthedocs.io/en/latest/formats/me-card/) — QrCode Library docs
[5] [zxing/zxing](https://github.com/zxing/zxing) — ZXing project, GitHub
## Deployments
_No country reports mention this standard by name._
## Regions / aggregations not mapped to a single country
- Universal